The Awakening War
by the-skywriter.321
Summary: Humans are under control by werewolves and vampires. The main way for humans to survive is by taking jobs for vampires. Elena, a young woman, leaves her family to take a job as a 'blood donor' - a sacrificial lamb a vampire can feed on. In the auction where she's placed, the famous bachelor Damon Salvatore buys her. Love blossom between the enemies, and also a war against all kinds
1. Life in the Camps

_**Summary:**_

_**Humans are ruled under the power of vampires and werewolves and are forced to be kept in concentration camps. Many are dying from starvation and disease, but some learned to live by working for vampires. Labors involved working in factories, restaurants, hotels, etc. The most famous job to make a poor life into a more grander and comfortable one the quicker way is to be a "blood donor" for vampires, shortly meaning that human allow vampires to take their own blood while being kept under their own care. Elena, a young woman, risk selling herself to take the job as a "blood donor" for the sake of her family. The famous vampire bachelor, Damon Salvatore, buys her. Troubles and complications arises between his mixed feelings for the girl due to her exact resemblance of his dead wife, and the astonishing evidence Elena soon finds out of the vampires' weakness that can possibly push her kind down to a war against the vamps.**_

_**Inspired by the Hunger Games trilogy.**_

_**I don't own the Vampire Diaries or the Hunger Games.**_

_**Enjoy…**_

_**~ the-skywriter.321**_

_Ding! Ding!_ The first morning bell rang loudly.

The werewolves unlocked all the cells in the camp to allow the humans to exit their rooms. The hour is precisely six in the morning. As tired as the humans are, the werewolves cared less of how exhausted they still were, heartless to even have the decency to give them an extra hour due to their twelve hour labor digging the mines yesterday.

Tyler, a werewolf known as the second watchman, unlocked room 305 and stepped inside. There are only two people in the room known as the Gilberts, Elena and Jenna Gilbert. Elena, a young woman in her early twenties, took a hold of her aunt's hand and tried to get her up from bed. But Jenna is too ill to force herself to stand up or even move. Tyler marched toward the bed and pushed Elena aside.

"Wake up, woman! Its time for role call!"

Jenna shook her head and took shallow breaths with her eyes closed tightly. "No...No..I can't. I can't..." She mumbled with her dry lips.

Elena pulled herself back to her feet. She stood between her dear aunt and Tyler, spreading her arms out to protect the ill woman.

"She's sick. I can take her place in work. Please, just allow her to stay here."

"No. I will not have that. Everyone needs to be outside right now. The only ones who can stay inside are those who are willing to die. Since your aunt is very much alive, I'm pretty sure I don't have to drag her body out, so get that damn woman off the bed and come outside."

"She can't move. She'll surely faint if I get her off the bed. Just leave her be. I can manage to work in my station by myself."

Tyler stepped forward to her, inhaling deeply through his nostrils. Elena swallowed the temptation to flinch as his burning hand grabbed the back of her neck and clenched it tightly in a deadly grip.

"If you can't make her get off the bed, then I will."

He pushed her aside again and released her neck on time right before she fell on the floor. Tyler grabbed Jenna's lifeless arms and pulled her up. Elena lifted her head and crawled on her bruised knees toward the bed to stop Tyler.

"Wake up! Open your eyes!" He shouted.

Jenna's eyes still didn't open. Tyler's impatience caused his dangerous hot hands to strike a hard slap across her pale cheek, not leaving a red mark on her snow skin.

Elena pulled herself back on her feet again, and gripped both Tyler's arms, trying to pull them off her aunt. But he pushed her off hard on the floor again. This time when she fell, her head bumped hard on the wall.

Gentle hands suddenly took both her arms and helped her stand up. Elena shivered and tried to shrug the strange hands off her, but the stranger refused to let her go.

"Release her, Tyler." A masculine voice commanded.

Tyler lifted his head to see who it is. After seeing it is his uncle, he slowly released Jenna and got off the bed. Jenna fell back on the bed, still lifeless and dead in an enchanting sleep.

"There is no need to treat the sick like that. What good would that do anyway?"

"We have our duties, Mason. The main rules is to get every human outside when they are called for."

"The rules doesn't apply to use sick workers to work in the mines."

"No it doesn't. But one thing we werewolves can't do is get too soft with these pathetic humans."

"Enough of that nasty ego of yours. Go outside and tend to the other rooms. We're on the clock by ten extra minutes."

Tyler looked straight ahead at Elena who lowered her head down, allowing her long hair to cover her hair in fear. He gave his uncle a nod and headed out to the door. When Tyler was gone, Mason took both her cheeks to examine her face. But Elena took his hands and yanked them off her.

"I'm fine...Thank you."

"Your welcome. Just be careful around him. He's a good kid if you know him any better, but when it comes to girls, I strongly suggest you to look out for his wandering hands."

"I'll keep in mind of that..So is it alright if I leave my aunt here? She's been sick for nearly three weeks. Her symptoms are getting a lot worse..I..I can't really do anything to help her."

"She's not actually allowed to be in bed right now. But I'll guard the door until you get back for the second bell."

"Thank you, Mason."

"No problem, let's go now. Everyone is waiting."

* * *

Tyler took the job as the role caller for today. With a thin rectangular device clutched on his hand, he walked to row by row calling each and every family's name. Mason stood behind Elena and saved her with a good lie that Jenna was in the gas chamber as punishment when Tyler got to her.

Mason clearly is a type of person Tyler cannot pass by easily, mainly because the man is his uncle and his werewolf years is a lot older than him, meaning he is physically a lot stronger than him.

After finishing the attendance, food carts arrived for the humans' breakfast. Breakfast is tasteless like all daily meals that are served to the humans; a soggy piece of bread with a small bowl of mashed turnip with a dash of salt.

As usual, the humans sat on the muddy ground to eat their meals. Elena went over to her brother, Jeremy, who stood three rows behind her. She gave him a quick hug before they sat down.

"How is Aunt Jenna?"

Elena ripped a piece of her bread and pressed the piece for it to flatten. She bitterly looked down at her unappetizing bowl of mashed turnips, not wanting to look at her brother in the eyes.

"She's still not well."

"Did you find out what's wrong with her?"

"No...But I did ask some people in my department, they suggested for me to keep her in bed as long as I can, and feed her to build her strength. I doubt such a treatment is enough for her though."

"Where is she now?"

"In her room."

"What? How?"

Elena shook her head. "It's not like that. She's fine. Okay? One of the dogs here was nice enough to let her go easily."

"Don't tell me it's that same bastard who saved you last time."

She looked down at the piece of bread pressed on her fingertips, feeling a bit hard and greasy. Her mind separated from a memory that she remembered that happened way back then, the time when she first encountered Mason to be her enigmatic savior but yet at the same time, her enemy.

_Elena and Jenna stood outside in the muddy slopes, digging with their shovels to push away unwanted damages away so there can be a cleared area. _

_The two women focused furiously on digging out a deeply buried cart. Sweat dripped down their temples as they scooped chunks of heavy mud with their shovels._

"_Oh when is this sucker ever going to come out?"_

"_Keep digging, we're almost there. We could do it, Elena."_

_A werewolf stepped forward to them, standing a few feet away from them._

"_No talking! Keep working!"_

_Jenna gave him a nod and returned her focus back to her digging. Elena turned her head slightly, giving him a quick nasty look when he turned his back from them._

_Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! The fourth bell rang loudly, signaling that it's time for a water break. Elena instantly fell down on her knees, her blistered hands finally loosened her grip on the prickly wooden handle of the shovel. Jenna went on her knees also, breathless from working non-stop._

"_Elena, can you get the water this time? I'm too tired to move."_

_Elena nodded. "Okay. I'll be right back."_

_She picked herself up, brushing the mud off her clothes, and walked her way up from the lower end of the slope. The water well is served back to the camps. Almost all the women are stationed to work in this area while the men are way far off working in the underground mines, mining for gold and diamonds that are later delivered to the vampires._

_Elena walked as fast as she could, bearing the pain of her blistered filthy bare feet. The water usually runs out and not everyone gets the chance to have a drink. The accurate portion they are given is at least ten fluid liters every four hours per person, dehydration and the danger of drinking unclean water are the main causes of illness and death the humans suffer each month._

"_Ahh! Elena! Elena! Help me! Please!..." Aunt Jenna's voice echoed from her direction._

_Elena quickly turned around, stunned by this._

"_Elena please!" Her shouting continued._

_Elena immediately headed back, running as fast as she can with her soar blistered feet. She breathed heavily as the sound of her aunt's voice continued helplessly louder. She finally reached back to where she left her aunt. In the way end of the muddy slope, her aunt is on the floor on top of the dangerous werewolf who has been guarding them since morning._

_It is obvious what the werewolf is doing to her. Elena headed too quick down the slippery slope, her body tumbled all the way down from not cautiously going slow. She pulled herself up once she landed and ran toward the werewolf. She jumped on him from behind, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs embracing his burning torso._

"_Let her go! Let her go, you filthy dog!"_

_The werewolf gagged and tried to shake her off him. But she firmly tightened her arms around his neck. Jenna backed away, shivering madly when the werewolf got off her._

_He grabbed Elena's arms and tried to loosen them. But she still refused to release him. He impatiently this time bit her in one of her arms, biting deeply into her skin until the taste of blood flowed in his damp mouth. Elena gasped in pain and finally loosened her arms off his neck. His sharp teeth removed off her skin, with his bare hands he gripped both sides of her neck and gripped the life out of it._

_Her eyes almost bulged out of its sockets as all the air from her lungs clogged tightly in his dangerous hands. Jenna crawled toward him, begging pitifully._

"_Please..She's just a girl..Please let her go. Let her go."_

_The werewolf kicked the woman with his foot and tightened Elena's neck even more. Elena helplessly grabbed his hands weakly, her pale completion turning purple and slightly blue._

"_I don't tolerate bitches like you. You're not worth keeping here."_

"_Let her go, Paul." A voice started._

_Paul turned around. Another werewolf stood right behind a helpless Jenna._

"_Come on, Mason. Can't a man have a little fun once in a while?"_

"_I won't repeat myself again, Paul. Let the girl go if you want to see those hands of yours move again the next morning."_

_Paul turned his attention back to Elena, he gave her a last look, gripping a lot tighter on her neck for the last time before finally letting her go. He walked away furiously, transforming into his werewolf form and ran off, his shredded clothes now lying on the ground._

_Elena remained still on the filthy ground, gasping heavily for air with her hands on her bruised neck. Mason first checked to see if Jenna was alright and then he went over to Elena. He bend down on his knees and took her by the shoulders, pulling her up gently to sit upright. _

"_Don't touch me."_

"_I won't hurt you, girl. It's okay."_

"_Just go away, you filthy dog."_

"_I will. But let me see your neck first."_

"_I'm fine...Just leave me alone..."_

_Mason nodded. His hands dropped from her shoulders and he pulled himself up to his feet. When his footsteps died down, Elena quickly crawled to her aunt._

_"Jenna, Jenna are you okay?"_

_Jenna nodded. "I'm okay..I'm so glad you came to me on time."_

_"Yeah, me too."_

_Next to her body laid a cold silver canteen. Elena picked it up and unsealed the top. She sniffed the entrance of it, but there's no smell. She took a small sip. It's water. She took another sip, but longer. To save some for her aunt, she spilled some on her cheek to cool her face, and gave her a sip._

_Jenna gulped hard on the water, her dry mouth feeling fresh from the cold taste._

"_Did you get that from the well?"_

"_What?"_

"_The well. Did you get that canteen from the well?"_

_Elena looked down at the side of the canteen, there is a carved writing on it written as W. She knows that this canteen belongs to a werewolf, and it can't be no other than Mason who just saved her._

'_Why would he give me this?..What kind of dog would suddenly treat us this..this decently?' She thought._

"_Elena."_

_Elena closed the canteen and placed it on the ground._

"_Uh..Yeah. Yes I did." She lied._

"_It's strange though. Usually the water is always dirty. Why is it so clean?"_

"_I..I don't know..."_

Elena looked down at her arms, covered by the filthy sleeves of her prisoner's button shirt. She can still feel the excoriating pain from Paul's bite...From then on, Mason always ended up being there for her and still to this day, the werewolf watches over her in case she is ever needed of protection, but the one thing he never gets is Elena's appreciation of him helping her.

"Lucky guess, Jeremy."

"Elena, I know that dog has been very soft on us, but we can't trust him. He's just after your body. You saw how the others go after some of the girls here; many of the girls died from being pregnant by dogs and look what happens to their babies, they are killed from being half mortal."

"I know, Jeremy. I know."

"Just be careful."

"I'll try."

Jeremy placed his bowl down on the ground and handed his piece of bread to his sister. She just looked at it without taking it.

"Take this and keep it in your pocket, until they call on us for the sixth bell, give it to Aunt Jenna when they take us inside. It's going to rain today so we're going to be taken in early."

"But you need to eat. I can give some of my food to Jenna."

"No, you need to eat too. Besides, I'm a lot stronger than you."

He took her wrist and placed the bread on her open hand. She looked at her brother, he looks more thinner than the last time she saw him which was three weeks ago when the men were taken to a three day trip to a new mine.

"Make sure Aunt Jenna is safe. Okay?"

"I promise."

The next hour Elena worked with other three women in the Jackson family. Since Jenna is bedridden in her cell - Mason's lie about her punishment in the gas chamber convinced the werewolves not to be suspicious of her absence - Elena was escorted to another station to work anyway without any excuse.

Besides the non-stop noise of their shovels digging deeply into the muddy earth, their mouths remain sealed except using them to breathe as the aching of their muscles irritated them every minute that passed.

The werewolf guarding them is Tyler. Elena can see him just behind her shoulder, his eyes gazing straight ahead at her. She ignored him and continued to dig deeply into the mud.

On the top end of the tall muddy slope, a man watched the women from below with Mason and two other werewolves by his side. He's dressed a lot finer than the others; his suit is a slight grayish back, his light pink dress shirt tucked neatly in his trousers, his brown hair slid back with a thick use of gel, and a pair dark round sunglasses covered his eyes.

His mouth moved back in forth, chewing a piece of gum. He looked down at the four women, but mostly paying more attention to Elena who doesn't seem to notice the man is looking at her. He scratched his chin, his jaw line covered in a five' o clock shadow.

"What family is this, gentlemen?"

One of the werewolves stepped forward with a thin rectangular device held out on his hand. "The Jacksons. Three daughters of Jonathan William Jackson and Patricia Jenson Jackson. Father deceased and the mother in the – "

The man shook his hand away in annoyance. "Never mind about all that bullshit..So three daughters. How come there's another one down there?"

"That girl is from the Gilbert family, sir. She has a family member in the gas chamber, so we placed her there to continue her work." The same werewolf answered.

"Tell me about her."

The werewolf scanned through her name on the device. "Elena Gilbert. Age twenty two. Found in Mystic Falls Virginia in the year of 1989. Brought here in Camp Fortuga twelve years ago."

"Twelve years ago? Oh God, that's a horribly long time. How about her health?"

"No illness. Bite mark on left arm. Fifty lashes on bare back and twenty on calves. Five years ago, she was sent to the gas chamber for misbehavior for about two days."

"The girl has some history. But are you sure she has no illness?"

"Yes, sir. Her history has no evidence of any disease."

"Excellent. I want her also. I want that girl's name to be called in the sixth belle by the time those humans line up for role call. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."


	2. I choose you

Ding! Ding! The sixth bell rang.

Tyler stepped forward to the four women and shackled each of their wrists connected with a single long chain that he can have to grab onto.

"I hope each of you ladies don't forget to smile. We have a guest today, the vamps sent over one of their auction men to pick a few girls here. So if you wish to get the hell out of here, just cross your fingers and hope that he might pick you from the list."

'An auction man? Why so soon? Over twenty girls were taken away just last month and only five of them returned dead so they can be properly buried by their own family. Isn't fifteen enough for those heartless vamps?' Elena thought.

Tyler got to Elena last and locked the cuffs on her wrists. She dropped her arms, turning her head to ignore his long glare at her face. His glare at her is defined by only lust and desire, his hands smoothed on her arms up and down to her elbow.

"I'll be sad to see _you_ leave if that vamp ever chose you."

Tyler grabbed hold of the chains and yanked it forward to signal the women to move.

* * *

Back in the camp, everyone is already arranged into neat rows. Tyler unlocked the shackles before leaving the girls in the first five rows.

Right in front of the first row stood the Fortuga cabin where all the werewolves live in. On the roof stood the auction man in his fine suit and his eyes still shaded with those casual sunglasses, another werewolf remained beside him with the rectangular device on his hand.

The werewolf cleared his throat and started the announcement.

"Today is a day to make a selection of a few girls to attend to the Mystic Fall's 140th auction. When I call out your names, step forward." The werewolf shouted, not needing a microphone since his voice has the ability to make it loud and clear for all to hear.

"We will now begin..The Kingsley Family. Both daughters of the Kingsley family, Reina and Hannah, step forward."

Two girls from the first row stepped forward. A middle aged woman from the second row burst into tears and almost fell down on her knees. It is obvious the woman is their mother. The two girls looked back at their pitiful mother, and embraced one another in the safety of their arms.

"The Dawson family. The first born, Janet Dawson, step forward."

The girl in the same row stepped forward.

The werewolf continued to announce the family's names by the time the number reached to nineteen girls. One more name must be called for the humans to return back to their cells.

Rain started to pour as the werewolf paused for a short moment to scan through the rectangular device. The auction man finally removed his sunglasses as the gray clouds swallowed the bright sun.

"Finally, we have reached to our last selection. Again step forward when I call your name..The Jacks- I mean the Gilbert family. Elena Gilbert, step forward."

Elena's heart almost stopped after hearing her name. She lifted her eyes straight at the auction man in the roof who looked straight at her with his dangerous dark eyes.

Her legs refused to obey her when the werewolf called out her name again. One of the werewolves, who stood nearby, went over to her and pushed her forward. She trembled, not by the coldness of the ice cold rain, but because of the unbearable attention the auction man is giving her.

"That is the end of our selection. Now girls, it is your decision to decide if you wish to leave this place and join the auction. I am aware that you all know very well the auction is only for the purpose to be selected as a 'blood donor'. As a blood donor, the longer you stay with your owner and please him or her then your family will be escorted outside of the camps and taken to shelter and will be well fed. But if you are released under the ownership of your owners, then your family will be executed and you will also end up in the same fate as well. So to those of you, who want to accept this job, step forward, if you don't, then return back to your rows."

A long silence forced the girls to remain glued to the ground. Elena looked around, clearly no one doesn't wish to accept.

But one voice, one girl broke the silence. One of the Kingsley sisters raised her hand.

"I accept!"

Her sister beside her quickly lowered her arm down. Tears fell down her eyes and she shouted at her sister.

"What is wrong with you?! Are you mad?!"

"It's the only way for us to survive, Hannah. I must do this. You just stay here. Okay? I'll take care of it. I promise I will try my best to please the owner once I'm sold. Okay?"

"Reina!"

The auction man clapped his hands, a simper curved on his lips. "Finally. A girl who has some guts to take the job. How about the rest of you? Make your decision now."

The two sisters embraced each other for the last time. But two werewolves separated them, one dragging Reina away while the other is holding Hannah back who is helplessly stretching both her arms out to reach for her sister.

A few of the girls this time took action when Reina was gone. Some of them returned back to their rows, while others accepted the offer and were taken away by a few of the werewolves. As for Elena, she still stood her ground on the muddy ground.

There are many reasons of why the girl is trapped in the middle of even accepting the decision to accept the offer or just walk away...If she accepts, she will have to risk experiencing a tremendously painful life of being bitten over and over again from a vampire for as long as the vamp wants her, while her family is safe and well fed. But if she doesn't accept, her aunt will surely die by then and who knows if her brother might be next, he is growing weaker from malnutrition and overworking...But the image of when that "lovely merry-go-around" will finally come to a stop will be revealed a lot quicker than ever, there will be nothing but blood and shattered bones in the Gilbert family once she might be released from the vampire's ownership. A vampire's pleasure can easily change a lot quicker than a child's appetite for something more sweeter, after all.

The auction man looked straight across at Elena again. In his eyes, there is a sign of desire and satisfaction. Although the girl is bruised and worn from harsh abuse and labor, the natural beauty in her lovely face and luscious long hair are still intact to draw the attention to any man's eye..and also to any vampire's eye too.

The auction man suddenly leaped off the roof, landing perfectly on his feet once he got down. In vampire speed, he went over to the girl. Elena gasped as he appeared right in front of her in such a quick speed.

"What's your answer, sugar? Everyone is waiting now."

"...I..I don't accept..."

She turned around to return back to her line. But the man grabbed her arm and turned her back to face him again. She gasped by the temperature of his ice cold hands.

"Is that really your answer, Elena?"

"Y-Yes..."

"Well then think again. I heard a few things about you and your family, and like others here, it doesn't sound so pretty. I mean, being lashed with a whip over fifty times and adding onto your two days of imprisonment in the gas chamber is exceedingly heartbreaking, don't you think?"

"What do you know, sir? You're dead, not alive."

"Ah, feisty I see. I hope you cool that down, cucumber, once you step forward to that auction."

"I said I don't accept."

"Believe me, Elena, you will change your mind."

"Don't call me by my name...It's hard enough to have you so close to me."

"Look, I'll make it a little easier for you. I looked through the history of each of your family member. Your brother seems to be doing alright. But as for your aunt, I can see that she is very sick. Is she not? And you know what very well of what happens to the sick in this camp, don't you?"

"Don't you dare lay a hand on my aunt."

"Well I could and I did. I ordered some of the dogs here to escort her out of her cell so they can finish her off."

"What?"

"You'll see her once I go back into the Fortuga cabin with the other girls. Of course, I don't think you should touch her, by then she'll probably be very very cold."

He released her arm and turned around to walk away. But he didn't disappear in thin air by his vampire speed again, he took slow human steps, having the full confidence that Elena this time will surely change her mind.

She is torn away from the decision to actually accept this..Because both ways will lead her entire family and including herself to death...Living here is already a living hell. How worse can it be to live under the same roof with a vampire?

"Wait! Wait a minute!" She called out.

The auction man stopped. With a smile curved on his lips, he called out to her without turning back.

"Have you changed your mind?"

"...Yes! Y-You win," she raised her arm in the air, "I accept."

**_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_**

The auction man locked himself in a private room in Fortuga Cabin. He paused for a short moment, to listen with his acute ears if any werewolves are nearby, not a single sign of them. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He dialed a number and raised the phone up to his ear.

"Hello? Cathy? Yeah, it's me Alaric. So far I chose twenty girls here in Fortuga Camp. Are you ready with the wardrobe?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. But there is something else I want you to do."

"What's that, sir?"

"I need you to do me an odd favor. Call for the best designer you have to make that blue dress that was first worn by the first human..the one from over twenty five years ago, you remember that girl, right?"

"Katherine Pierce? Yes, I do. Everyone does. But why do you want such a dress to be made?"

"You'll see. Just get that dress ready. I got a girl right here who will make a great impression to our clients tonight. I want Emily's team to do her makeup. Now I don't want too much color, I need innocence on that girl. Understand?"

"Yes, sir. But who is this girl?"

"Again, you'll see. I'll see you in two days. I'll be out of here by then."

"Yes, sir. Is there anything else?"

"No...Wait, yes. Make sure you send an invitation to the Salvatore Manor."

"Mr. Damon Salvatore? But sir, Mr. Salvatore has never attended any of our auctions for years."

"Oh I'm pretty sure he'll change his mind this time. Rub in with his brother, I heard he's going to be a father with that adopted vamp child. Perhaps that news might butter Damon's cold ass to get to that auction. I'm pretty sure that his brother is in need of a 'blood donor' now that he has a kid to take care of."

"Very well, sir. Is that all?"

"Yes, just get everything ready by the time I get back. Goodbye, Cathy."

"Goodbye, sir."

**_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_****_※_****_x_**

Some of the werewolves went off as packs to see if the roads are safe for Alaric's departure. The girls who were chosen, are locked in separate rooms until the day they leave for the auction.

It has been only three hours since the sixth bell role call. None of the girls had the chance to say a proper goodbye to their families and friends; they were taken immediately to the Fortuga Cabin without a chance to bid a proper farewell or an exchange of a hug.

Elena sunk down on the far end corner of the wall. Curling herself into a ball, pressing her folded legs to her chest as her arms embraced them.

'This is it...I'm really going to be sold. I wonder if a vampire's bite is the same feeling as being bitten by a werewolf. Is it more painful since they only use their fangs other than their entire teeth like the werewolves?' She thought.

The door suddenly opened, interrupting her thoughts. Mason entered the room, but behind him stood her brother. Elena quickly pulled herself back to her feet and rushed over to her brother. The two hugged each other, not caring that Mason is still standing in front of them.

"You only have one minute. I'll try to stall as best as I can."

After saying that, he left out the door and quietly closed the door behind him. Jeremy smoothed the back of his sister's head, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Wh-What were you thinking? Are you this stupid to bring yourself this far?"

"I had to, Jeremy. I just had to...Even if it might kill me and including both yours and aunt Jenna's, at least..at least you guys will be able to live a peaceful life temporally. That's better than being trapped here, allowing our empty stomachs and weak bodies to kills us."

Jeremy pulled back just a little to look at his sister's face.

"But what about you? It's not worth being a prisoner by a vampire, Elena. It's just not worth it."

"Yes it is," she wiped his tears with the tip of her thumb, "knowing that you and Aunt Jenna can at least live a decent better life is worth everything I have to make it possible. So..So make sure you stay healthy and take care of her while I'm gone. Okay? Because..Because I can't be around anymore to do that myself now."

"Elena."

"I love you, Jeremy...You have to continue to be strong. You survived this far, you need to keep living on now there is hope. Okay?"

"This is too unfair."

Her eyes pooled into tears as Jeremy pulled her back for a hug.

"Don't forget me..Don't forget us."

"How could I?"

The door opened and Mason came back in. He separated Jeremy from Elena. Jeremy gave his sister a kiss on the cheek before allowing Mason to escort him quickly out the door.

When the door closed, Elena collapsed on the floor. Her muscles no longer aches anymore, but all the pain risen up to her chest. Endless tears poured down from her eyes, and her voice drowned from loud sobs. With her fist, she pounded her painful chest and even bit her hand hard to silence her sobs as the image of the tragic future planted deep in her mind.

There is no good conclusion as the life of being a 'blood donor'. The experience of being bitten daily by a vampire is a horrific sight and not an appealing feeling to have sharp fangs plunged into the skin. The only hope is that the longer a 'blood donor' remains by the side of their master or mistress, the longer their family are kept alive and live well in their new life. Of course, all the endured effort to stretch the years of being a 'blood donor' ends due to the vampire's wanting for a fresh new 'blood donor' or because of the unwanted behavior from the 'blood donor' himself or herself.

As for Elena, she will follow the same basic steps as a 'blood donor'. Feeling every pain. Shed every tear. Obey whether she is strong or weak. Stay alive until the clock stops ticking.

Out of all questions that she wants to know, the main question lies to this. How long will her career as the 'blood donor' exactly last?

~ In each of the girl's rooms, two female employees entered their rooms to wash and dress them for supper. For Elena, however, Alaric hired two more employees to assist her needs.

Elena is not comfortable at all of sitting in the warm bath tub completely naked, while these four strange women are fixing her up like a live china doll.

Two women scrubbed her filthy skin, making the once white bubbly water into a complete muddy black and brown. The other two women scrubbed her long hair with over two different shampoos and conditioners to soften its rough texture. Elena complained every time the ladies tried to unknot the tight knots on her hair or if they scrubbed the deep scars on her skin.

After bathing, Elena stepped off the bath tub as one woman wrapped a bundle to hold up all her hair to dry, and also slipped a robe on her.

"Go to that massage table, now." The woman said.

Elena did so. She climbed on top of it and lied down. The four women crowded around her. Each of them snapped purple rubber gloves on their hands. The two women who stood in the way end of the table, wiped her legs dry with a towel. Behind them stood a silver cart that carried all sorts of skin products on the top of its tray. The two women who stood in the front part of the table, grabbed both Elena's arms and pinned her down.

One of them spoke to her. "This is going to hurt a bit. So try not to move. When it come to waxing the skin, the only rule is that the client must never whine. Got it?"

"Waxing? Why do you have to wax my skin?"

"Well, I'm not sure if you ever looked at yourself in the mirror, sweetheart, but your skin is far too hairy and must be smooth before Saltzman puts you in that auction."

"Who's Saltzman?"

"The man who chose you. I'm sure you saw him during the selection. Now enough talking and hold still."

The two women in the way end of the table applied cold wax completely on one of her calves, they taped a few strips of transparent tape until there isn't a spot left of the gel. They waited for a moment. Then, the two women who're grabbing onto Elena's arm, pushed them down against the table.

One woman on the far end of the table, grabbed Elena's other clean leg, while the other woman started to removed the tape off her calf. Elena gritted her teeth tightly as the woman stripped each tape off in lightening speed. She understands now why it is necessary to have someone to hold her down, the experience is unbearably painful.

The three women loosened their hold on her, as the other woman started to apply the wax on Elena's other calf.

A good hour passed of waxing Elena completely naked like a plucked chicken, but the beauty process did not end there. After they washed the wax off her, they dried her again and slipped her back on her robe.

The same woman who spoke to her earlier took Elena by the arm and pushed her down to a chair. "Remain seated. And again, try not to move. After we trim your brows and clean your nails, all there is left is for you to change into the outfit we prepared for you."

Again the women crowded around her, doing different things all at the same time in order to finish this makeover once and for all. One woman cleaned her toenails while two other women between her cleaned the dirt off her finger nails. The woman, who spoke to her, pushed her head down on a pillow as she plucked unwanted hair of eyebrows to make the two arches perfect with a pair of tweezers.

Elena winced of being trapped of being strapped down like this, and allowing these women to literally doll her up into a completely different person. But the woman finished trimming her brows a lot quicker while the other three women focused on cleaning every bit of dirt tucked in the small gaps of her nails. The woman unwrapped the towel off Elena's hair. She pushed a black cart behind her, the cart heavily carried hair products and odd looking devices that Elena never seen before.

The woman placed the wet towel on the handle of the cart for it to lay there. She first picked the hair dryer, and dried Elena's wet hair. Elena again complained of how her cheeks burned by the hair dryer, but the woman ignored her and continued to dry the rest of the wet strands of her hair. After her hair fell dry enough, the woman placed the hair dryer down on the cart, and picked a curling iron. She raised the heat up high and waited for a minute for it to get warm.

The woman, who finally finished cleaning Elena's toenails, lifted her head and asked the woman who busied herself with Elena's hair.

"Emily, should I bring the dress now?"

"It'll only take me a few minutes doing her hair. But I'll think it'll be alright. Yes. Bring it here."

"Alright."

Elena went through another irritating experience as the flaming hot curling iron curled each strand of her hair. With a finish touch, Emily turned the curling iron down, checking the condition of every strand of the hair now curled into large volumized curls.

"There. You're finished. Stand up so you can change."

Elena stood up from the chair and stepped a few steps forward as one of the women brought the dress she's suppose to wear for the dinner. Emily removed her robe off her, and handed her a new pair of undergarments and a bra to wear. Elena quickly slipped them on, no longer feeling uncomfortable of being looked down at by the women.

Emily slipped a dress over Elena's head and slipped both Elena's arms through the entrance of the sleeveless holes, and she lowered the tight skirt down that ends to half way down her thigh. The dress is lavishing yet tight, the top is a sapphire blue see through silk; a tight undershirt connected with the tight skirt of the dress, the tight skirt is midnight black and its length is short that exposes her bare hairless legs. To cover the scars on her calves, the women helped her slip on to a pair of black fish net stockings; something respectable to wear to cover her skin but at the same time to show the embellishment and its scandalous patterns of cuts to show her feminine skin.

Emily took Elena gently by her arm and took her back to the chair.

"Sit down so I can do your makeup," she turned to face the other women, "I'll take it from here. You all can leave before me."

The three women nodded and left out the door. Elena sat down on the chair just as Emily said. Emily placed the makeup box on her lap and took out a bottle of concealer crème. She pressed a dab of it on her finger tips, with her hand resting on Elena's cheek, she applied the crème on the small unwanted scars on the edges of her forehead.

"Those dogs haven't been very nice to you, have they?"

Elena shook her head.

"Well, I hope you brace yourself, child, things won't be pretty once you end up in the hands of those vamps."

"You..You're not a vampire?"

"Of course not. I'm a human being just like you, I assure you. I'm just doing my job like how many of us are doing. Working like this doesn't pay much, but it at least keeps the bread on the table, and also keeps us out of places like this."

A pang of anger arouse inside her. Although Emily is suffering much as she is, she at least got herself out of the camps by escaping or possibly accepting other optional jobs when the auction men stop by. It angers her that the woman is not one bit bruised or scarred as much as she is, and how she is managing to survive while Elena has suffered ever since she was a child in this camp.

"You may be a human like me. But you're not the one living miserably like an animal here."

"Now don't get all nasty with me, child. I myself lived in death camps like this as well. And for me, when I was born, I had no mama to take care of me. I was raised and watched over by my daddy till the day he died..Oh Lord that man protected me every minute of the way. I was young and weak. He also was weak but he risked getting his throat burned and getting whipped by my wrongdoings by the time I was seventeen."

Emily squeezed some more of the concealer on her finger tips, and this time she focused on the purple hand print bruises on Elena's neck.

A bitter taste of guilt and self-pity soured Elena into silence. She regrets it now for ever saying such a thing to a woman who is clearly on the same page as her.

"I..I'm sorry."

"No need to be sorry. He's long gone anyway. Its better that he's dead though. Now there isn't a single dog hurting him or yelling at his face."

"How did you get out?"

"Simple. I sweet talked into one of the werewolves there and married him. Once I married him, I was under his protection according to the rules of justice, and then I got a job by working for the vamps, I've been working for them ever since."

"You married a werewolf, why?"

"Why, you say? Child, you don't seem to understand the power both the werewolves and vampires have. Now listen. The vamps are on the top, all high and mighty and every single one of those dead folks are rich and live well-off. The werewolves are below them; they work in these camps or get some land and live their own lives, but just because they are below those vamps don't mean they are not strong. If it wasn't for their settled treaty of separating the territories, then the vamps and those dogs will still be in war. Now the lowest class is us, humans. That's the way it works. If you marry a werewolf, then your little husband's pack can protect you from the power of the vampires."

"I..I never thought of it that way."

"Neither did I. It took me nearly three months to gather the information before I got hitched."

"How did you marry anyway?"

"My current husband, Opel, my fiancé then, took me away from the camp and we ran away to Virginia and got married in this town called Mystic Falls. That town is still running. It's the only place where you can go that will lead you to the vampire territory. Our marriage was only legal if we get married off by a vamp priest. There was a church in that town, so we invited a random person from the street as a witness to our marriage, we signed a few papers – I just drew an X since I couldn't write, I still can't – and then that was that."

"Are you still married?"

"Obviously, yes."

"Do you live together?"

"We only meet a few times per year since no werewolves are allowed to trespass in any of the vampire territories. As for me, I live protected under our deal of me being his wife. You will never believe how many times I have to show my papers to strange vamps that I'm a werewolf's wife."

"Why can't the vampires hurt you?"

"You got soap in your ears, child? I told you, werewolves are strong too. If something happens to me, then my husband and his pack will grow angry and the war between the dogs and those dead vamps will start a war again. A war is what the vamps fear of most. That's why they try their hardest to keep every different species separate. Like right now for instance, half the human population is pushed to one side with the dogs, while the vamps live happily in their free lives in the other side."

"Has many women married werewolves just like you?"

"I'm not so sure about that. Maybe...But one thing for sure, child, we all humans have a story that can make anyone cry. Once your journey starts of being a 'blood donor', you're going to be just like me, a woman filled with stories and marked for life..Take care of yourself, and behave. Those two advises will most certainly save your life."

The door suddenly opened. Both Emily and Elena turned their heads toward the door. Mason entered the room.

"Elena, you have to come with me. Saltzman wishes to see you for supper."

"Are the rest of the girls there too?" Elena asked.

"Yes. Everyone is there already. You're the last one to be summoned."

"Alright."

Emily closed the seal of the concealer and placed it back in the makeup box. Elena stood up from her chair, whispering a quick thank you to her before walking toward the door.

* * *

The long glass dining table is filled with all varieties of rich food; three large plates of mutton chops with a light spicy sauce, two different kinds of soups served for each person; one a green hazel nut and the other a purple colored soup sweetened with soft sweet yams, large bowls of buttery mashed potatoes, baskets full of both wheat and white warm slices of bread, large dishes of a refreshing combination of salads and lemon squeezed fish, and a volcanic melting molten chocolate cake for dessert.

The girls filled their plates with food and stuffed their mouths with the meals that they never in their lives ever tasted before. Alaric ate in a slow pace, slicing his meat with his knife with care and chewing thoroughly by each bite he took. Elena grabbed both the bone of the mutton chops, eating both of them clean. But other than drawing her attention only on the food, Alaric's main focus at her distracted her from enjoying herself by feasting to the meal she never had the chance to eat.

Elena scooped a big scoop of mash potatoes on her plate, and also another mutton chop. She grabbed the end of its bone, dipped the meat in the mash potatoes and took a bite from it. With her back leaning against her chair, she finished the mutton chop clean and also her plate of mash potatoes. She grabbed her dinner napkin and wiped her filthy hands and also her mouth.

She looked around the table, the food is almost gone and the girls' appetite level doesn't seem to decrease at this point. But the only thing that's disturbing to her is not how the girls are eating so heartily, yet it's the attention she is still getting from Alaric.

He raised the wine glass to his lips and took a sip from it.

"Are you already full, Elena?"

She nodded.

"Good. I'm glad you liked it."

"So what's the plan, exactly?"

"The plan is for me to make all of you beautiful and make sure you behave to make a good impression toward my clients. After you're sold away, it is up to you of how you're going to please your master."

"When do we leave?"

"In two days."

"Can..Can I ever contact my family?"

"Of course not. That's against the rules. And I highly doubt your master would approve of that neither."

"Is your use of saying 'master' a little signal for us that the clients you're referring to are just men..I mean, male vamps?"

"Precisely. You all are young and pretty, I'm sure it won't be any challenge for you to attract the opposite sex. So far of what I hear about how the dogs behavior in this camp, most of the situation involves attempted rape which tells me that most of you girls here have what it takes to attract people. Believe me, girls, if you can attract a dog - those aggressive bastards - then it is possible for you to do the same with a vampire...As for you, Elena, you seem to be the smart one out of all these girls."

"Why would you say that?"

"Well, for one thing, you actually had the guts to talk back to me before you accept this job, and right now at this moment, you're the only one who's asking me the right questions to think of new ways to keep yourself alive. As for the rest of you, stop eating for a minute so we can discuss something real quick."

The girls stopped eating and wiped their mouths and hands with their dinner napkin. Alaric paused for a moment once they all placed their dinner napkins back down on the table.

"The auction will be held in Mystic Falls. I called for my personal assistant just a few hours ago to make sure all the arrangements are settled for you girls. Now after my employees finishes the makeover for each of you, you all must remain as a group and wait at the back of the stage. I will call each of your names and you will stand on stage with me so I present you more properly to the clients. The only thing you have to do is to keep your mouth shut and smile. And if I tell you to do something – spin a little to show off your dresses, expose a glimpse of your legs, or lift your head a little higher – you must do as I say. To this very evening, I am your owner, and until my clients buy you under their care I am no longer your owner or responsible for whatever that might happen to you. Do we have that clear?"

The girls nodded.

A manservant walked in the room suddenly with a silver tray on his hand, carrying small twenty glasses of red wine. He went around the table, placing each glass in front of them. When the servant placed the last glass to Elena, Alaric raised his glass slightly up in the air to make a toast.

"Let's make a toast. Pick up your glasses girls."

Elena and the other girls picked their glasses and raised their arms awkwardly like Alaric. The custom to make a toast with alcohol is not something the girls are familiar with, but they still went on with the toasting anyway.

"To the best of the auction! I wish all of you girls my best wishes for your future!"

Alaric clanged his glasses with the girls who sat beside him. The girls did the same with each other, again thinking of how clinging fancy glasses is a ridiculous idea. When Alaric took a sip from his glass, the girls did the same to the very last drop.

When Elena placed her glass down, the taste of the wine forced her throat to choke. She swallowed the horrible taste of the alcohol and coughed harshly. The girls resulted to do the same.

Elena stared straight at Alaric, to the sign of his smirk, she knows that he did something to the drinks.

"What did you give us?" She asked, with one of her hands holding her throat.

"Vampire blood."

"What?" Elena gasped.

She clenched her belly and coughed even harder to the point that she can almost puke. The other girls did also reacted the same. Alaric just chuckled as they tried to force themselves to puke.

"You girls are really stupid. Is it that horrible of that fact you just drank some of my blood? Why won't you look at yourself and think again?"

Elena looked down at her hands to see what he means by that, she gasped to find them all smooth without a single sign of dried cracks on her skin. She looked down at her arms also, the bite mark Paul once gave her is now gone. She pushed her chair back and looked down at her legs. The whip lashes on her calves are also gone, leaving just the smoothness of her skin.

"Like I said, it's not so bad of drinking my blood. Hopefully, your masters will be generous enough to give their blood to you every time they bite you. Believe me, being bitten by a vampire is not an experience you would want to go through again. But drinking their blood is like medicine, it heals you and encourages you in a way that giving your own blood to your masters is not so bad after all."

"What's the other effect it has on us humans? Can it give us wings so we can fly away from them?" Elena asked sarcastically.

"No. The only effect it has is healing you weaklings and also has the power to turn you just like us if the venom of our fangs goes to deep into your veins."

"Oh really? Perhaps you can tell me more about this vampire life you live in. Not that being a vampire is the number one career everyone wanted, but since you probably went through it for more like a century, tell me what it's like selling people to those crazy vampires and see them die when they're grabbed and bitten against their own will."

"You have some spunk, Elena. I honestly have to say that I like that. Perhaps you shouldn't hide that side from the clients. Some of the gentlemen I am acquainted will find it refreshing to meet a human like you who just doesn't cry pathetically like a child and beg for mercy."

"Oh yeah, I'll probably annoy the hell out of them until they literally kill me instead of just feed on me."

"Not exactly. Vampires have their ways to force humans to obey them."

"And what is that?"

"Compelling. The safe side about being human is that the vampires must be invited in to enter a household that does not belong to them. So if one of you girls end up traveling with your masters, run into any building that does not belong to your master in case he loses his temper. Believe me, it'll do you some good."

"What is compelling?"

"Do you always ask these many questions?"

"Only if it's a matter of life and dead. And since right now is a perfect example of that, then yes I do have a hell lot of questions for you to answer to me."

"Compelling is manipulating the human mind. When a vampire use the power of their eyes, they make a command that forces the humans to do exactly as they say, the only hard thing is that the human never remembers they just been compelled by the vampire."

"Is there anything we can do to prevent that? Like some protection from that power?" Reina Kingsley asked.

Alaric smiled. "Finally, somebody else is brave enough to talk to me..The answer to your question is something I have no knowledge of, Reina, I am so sorry. The only thing that you can do is just take careful precautions."

* * *

_The vampire walked toward Elena. She turned to run, but the vampire went to her in vampire speed and caught her by the arm._

"_You can't run away from me, sweetheart."_

_Elena walked backwards as the vampire walked forward, his deadly fangs ready to bite her and his eyes dangerously black and bloody red._

"_No. No. You stay away from me! Stay away!"_

_She is now trapped, her back pressed against the wall. The vampire grabbed both her arms tightly in his marble cold hands, pressing his torso against her. His eyes lured on her bare neck, the sound of the blood rushing through her veins are clear and heard easily to his ears. He licked his lips and pressed his cold lips on her neck. He breathed in through his nostril of her sweet scent, and licked the small side of her warm neck._

"_You smell so good...I knew when I bought you, you were the perfect girl."_

"_Please..Don't. Don't do this."_

_Tears rushed down her eyes. As a few drops of tears dripped down to her chin, the vampire licked them away and savored the salty taste. He returned his lips on her neck and pierced both his fangs on the side of her neck. Elena gasped in pain, gritting her teeth hard as she tried to swallow her screams. The vampire sucked in her blood, taking mouthfuls of her sweet delicious blood._

_After a long savoring of her blood, his fangs removed from her neck. With his tongue, he licked the blood away that is left on the perfect two small hole. He looked at her eyes, and his mouth devilishly curved into a smirk._

"_You are so beautiful. So beautiful..What a pity you've been kept hidden in those damn camps for this long. If you stayed there any longer, your fine beauty would have faded away by then."_

_In vampire speed, he rushed to the bed and pushed her down on it. Elena helplessly tried to get back up, but the vampire pushed her down by getting on top of her. He ripped the front of her dress, revealing her bare breasts. With his cold hands, he pinned both her arms above her head and leaned against her, kissing her chest across her collar bone._

_Elena lied their trying to move, trying to shake her body to break free from the deadly grip to loosen, but it's no use, she is trapped._

"_Please..Let me go. Let me go."_

"Elena. Elena, wake up." A familiar deep voice said.

Elena quickly sat upright, droplets of sweat formed on her damp temple, and her mouth still moving as if the dream is real.

"Let me go...," she covered her eyes with her hands, "Oh..It was just a dream. It was just a stupid dream."

Mason wrapped an arm around her neck, and gently smoothed the back of her head.

"It was just a nightmare. Okay? I'm here. There's nothing to be scared of."

Elena dropped her hands from eyes. She looked up at Mason and shrugged his arm off her.

"Thank you..What are you doing here?"

"I heard your voice in your room, I thought you were in trouble so I came in. I didn't know you were sleep talking."

"Well, thank you again. Now leave. I need to sleep."

"...Of course. Goodnight."

"_Goodbye_, Mason."

Elena fluffed her pillow and lied back on the bed, facing her back from him. Mason gave an understanding nod and stood to leave.

In her mind, she despises Mason. Although he never hurt her or even her family, he is still her enemy. He's a werewolf who only lives to imprison the humans and allow vampires to buy them away for themselves. But Emily came to mind, recalling something that she told her while she was putting her makeup on for the dinner.

'…_That's the way it works. If you marry a werewolf, then your little husband's pack can protect you from the power of the vampires.'_

Alaric announced to the girls at dinner that they'll be heading to Mystic Falls for the auction. This is perfect. If Elena convinces Mason to marry her, then she will be protected under his protection and along with her family. But can she really risk using the man since from the very beginning, all he ever gave her was nothing but kindness?

Elena pushed herself to sit upright, she turned back to Mason and called for his name. Mason turned around.

"What is it?"

"...Can you stay with me?.."

"What?"

"I can't sleep as long as I have someone beside me...Please..."

Mason's expression softened into a more hopeful look on his face. He nodded and returned back to the bed. He removed his shoes and Elena scooted back to give some space for him to lie down. The mattress creaked as his massive weight weighed down heavily on it. But Elena pretended not to notice.

The two lied down on the bed. Mason opened out an arm for Elena to lie down on it as a pillow. She did so, and smoothed his chest with her hand. She snuggled closer to him as his eyes looked down at her lovely face.

"Thank you..." She whispered.

"No. No, Elena. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For finally opening up to me like this."

* * *

Dawn started. The first bell rang, signalling for all the cells to open. Elena, still use to the wake up calls, got out of bed – quietly trying not to wake Mason – and went over to the window. She watched the werewolves unlocking the cells and forcing tired humans outside to report to role call.

Just as usual, long rows of people formed in less than twenty minutes. A different werewolf took the role as role caller and walked across each row, calling out each family's name.

Warm arms suddenly embraced her waist. Elena gasped, but relaxed a bit once she realize it is just Mason. His bare chest touched her back, giving her a kiss on the back of her head.

"Come back to bed?"

"I'm not tired..."

"Your family is going to be fine, Elena. Now that you took the job, Alaric already ordered one of us to escort them to shelter; he bought a house for them just last night."

"What? I didn't know that..But why?"

"I guess he pitied you."

"But why just me? How about the other girls? They're in the same situation as me. Why didn't he do the same for their family?"

"I don't know."

'Am I some kind of special toy that Alaric thinks is too precious to waste? I'm just a girl who is actually stupid enough to get herself this far..I'm not smart. I'm nothing special. So..So why did he do something that far?' She thought.

Mason tightened his arms around her waist, and lowered his head on her shoulders, kissing them softly with his warm lips.

"So now that you know your family is safe, come back to bed with me."

"No...I-I'm not tired anymore..You should go and report back to your duties."

"No, they don't need me yet. I have a few extra hours to kill before heading back to work. And right now, I want to waste those hours with you."

Elena took his arm and pulled them off her. She turned to face him and Mason looked at her confused.

"Listen, Mason. There's something I have to tell you."

"And what is that?"

"Mason..I...I don't have feelings for you..Last night was not real..I mean, for me it wasn't. I lied to you. I..I didn't need anyone to be next to be that night. What I really want from you is to – "

"Marry me." He finished the sentence for her.

Her voice silenced after hearing that. Mason took both her cheeks with his warm hands, and gently held them in place.

"I overheard you talk to that makeup artist. I figured you might fish out a plan involving me."

"...Why did you let me pretend all the way through last night? Why didn't you just push me away and get out that door?"

"Because I am willing to help. I can arrange the marriage for us just like you planned before."

"Mason."

"It's the best plan that can protect you. Think about it. If you accept, by the time you're taken away to Mystic Falls, I'll go with you. We can easily slip away from Alaric's control and elope in a nearby church."

"Mason, I really did wanted to do this. But..But are you really willing to do this. Because I have to be honest with you, I'm not going to go through with this marriage through love, only for convenience."

"I know...I admit that I want our marriage to be real, not played or used as a shield to protect your own skin. But if it's the only way to keep you alive, I will no doubt marry you regardless of the circumstances."

"By tomorrow, will you be there to escort me then?"

"Yes."

"Okay..When we reach to Mystic Falls, prepare an appointment with a priest, I'll sneak out of my room and meet you somewhere so we can go on with the wedding. Okay?"

"I'll just meet up with you somewhere. The real challenge to this is not finding a priest, or finalizing the marriage, the main thing we have to worry about is how you're actually going through with this. Although the vamps will have to be careful with you, they will still hurt you and if any injuries or illness happens to you, they will use your job as an excuse to the cause of your symptoms. Make sure you keep in mind of that."

"I will."

"I'm serious, Elena. Life as a 'blood donor' will seem like heaven, but once you return here back to me, you will no longer be yourself. You will be scarred both physically and mentally. Living in the same house with a vamp, who always appears out of the blue to feed on you, can make any person insane for the first day..You mustn't lose yourself and most certainly never die. Okay? Promise me that."

"I have to promise it. If I die, it'll be the end of my family. I need them alive...whether this job will hurt me or change me to a complete maniac, I will risk it."

"So it's settle then. By tomorrow night, we will be married."

"Yes.. I just hope it'll all go well."

"I hope so too."


	3. The Auction

Nightfall fell as Alaric and the girls finally arrived to Mystic Falls by cars. An arrangement settled for their stay in a hotel that Cathy, Alaric's personal assistant, rented out.

The werewolves who came along the journey escorted the girls to their separate rooms. Mason volunteered to take Elena himself.

When they reached to the room she's staying at, Mason stopped her by the door. He looked back to his right and then to his left, checking to see if anyone is nearby; there is no one in sight. He turned his head back to Elena and placed something in her hand.

She looked down at it and found a silver wedding band. She tried to give the ring back, but Mason refused, closing her fingers on her hands to plant the ring deeply on her palm.

"It's traditional for the bride to wear a ring."

"Mason."

"That belonged to my mother..My father worked in the mines ever since he was a boy. He learned how to search for rich gold and did a lot of welding. When he married my mother, he worked for three straight days until he dug out real silver. He melted it and made this ring...The day she was on her death bed, she gave the ring to me and begged me to sell it. She told me that she would find finally rest in peace with my father, who died before her, and that the ring means nothing without him beside her. I never sold it though. I kept it by the time I was able to make more money by working back in the Fortuga Camp."

"...I'm sorry..."

"It's alright. It was a long time ago..We all have our stories, after all. Anyway try the ring on. I'm not sure if it fits you, but my mom had skinny fingers since the day she died, you do too, I'm sure it might fit."

Elena slipped the ring on her thumb, but it only fit halfway. Mason chuckled of the fact that she has no knowledge of the tradition of marriage. He took her left hand, pulled the ring off her thumb and slipped it on her fourth finger. It's a perfect fit just like he hoped for.

"It fits you just fine."

"Thank you, Mason."

"Your welcome. Anyway, I got the priest ready to arrange the marriage documents."

"When do we have to leave?"

"Now will be best."

"Now?..Okay. But there's guards outside, they'll get us."

"Don't worry about the guards. If we make a run for it, they'll never get to us on time. Come on, let's go. We'll use the window."

Mason slipped the hotel key card into the inserted place of the door knob. The small machine scanned it and opened the door. Mason placed the card back in his pocket. He took her by the arm and rushed inside the room.

He released her arm and opened the window. Elena stood there, puzzled of what he's thinking of doing next. Right then at that moment, Mason kicked off his shoes and started to pull down his pants. By the time he slipped his pants off completely, Elena immediately turned around as Mason stripped off his other clothes.

"Why are you taking your clothes off?"

"Well, the only way we can get to the church a lot faster is for me to carry you on my back in my werewolf formation. If I go through the transformation with my clothes on, I'll just end up tearing them into pieces...By the way, can you take these clothes and hold on to them so I can change back to them until we reach the church?"

"Okay...Just hurry up."

Mason removed the last of his clothes and kicked the pile of his clothes aside. Elena took a few steps back, and she picked up the pile of clothes and his shoes.

"Now get on my back."

"Do I have too?"

"The fastest way for me to get us there is you getting on my back that way there will no trouble for you to run."

"Okay...Just..Can I close my eyes?"

"It's your choice."

Elena turned her head to the side, her arms stretched out to blindly find where he is standing. When she felt his back with her fingertips, she embraced one arm around his neck, while the other arm clutched tightly onto his clothes and shoes, and her legs wrapped around his waist.

"Hold on tight. Alright? It's okay if you grab onto my fur, it won't hurt me that much. This ride requires no seat belts so try doing everything you can to grab on as long as you don't want to slip off and fall."

"Got it..Let's..Let's just get this over with."

"Okay. Here we go."

Mason slipped his body halfway out the window. With the kick of his feet, he leaped outside of the window. Elena closed her eyes as the wind harshly blew coldly on her skin. Mason's transformation processed in lightening speed. His formation completed once he landed on his feet.

Immediately he took a run for it. Just as Mason warned Elena, the force of the wind tried to separate her from his back. She gripped a handful of his fur, tightening her legs around his waist until she can feel his rib cage against the sides of her calves.

Mason soon halted to a stop by the time he finally reached the church. His transformation changed him back to his human form. But even though he stood upright, Elena refused to let go. Her eyes are still closed and her tighten grasp on him still hasn't loosen.

Mason touched her hand and spoke.

"Elena. Elena, we're here. You can let go of me now."

Elena's eyes burst open once hearing those words. She released his neck and dropped her legs off his torso. She again turned her head away as she awkwardly dropped his clothes and shoes, and turned her body around.

He changed into his clothes quickly. He couldn't help but smile of how adorably she took a few breaths, whispering herself to calm down.

When he slipped his shoes on, he signaled her to turn around. Elena turned her body to face him. He took her by the hand and gave it a light kiss on top of it.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes. Let's do this."

_**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**  
**_

"What do you mean you're married? That can't be possible. It's only been a day since you arrived here. How..How in the hell did you get married so fast?!" Alaric demanded.

"Just this evening, we snuck out of the hotel and met with the priest. Our marriage has been finalized, we had a witness to confirm proof of our small wedding, and lastly we signed our papers. It's a done deal, Saltzman." Mason said.

"Oh the hell it isn't. Look, just because you walk in here so much in love with this marriage document in your hands doesn't mean that I can't have the marriage annulled."

Mason stepped forward, he raised his fist to Alaric's icy marble cheek. "You have no right to do that. Have you forgotten what I am? I am just as strong as you are to crack this ancient face of yours. Elena is my wife now. None of your kind can't touch her now that she is under my protection and my pack."

Alaric paused for a moment. He is aware of the power a wolf pack has. War between the vampires and the werewolves hasn't occurred for nearly twenty years. The world for the vampires have been living happily in peace, none of them wouldn't want anything to ruin that.

"...So does this mean that you are backing out from the job offer, Elena?"

Elena, who remained quiet throughout the whole argument, stepped forward beside her husband and replied. "I'm still in for it. Even though I'm married, I want my family to stay where they are now."

"Look. This won't be easy now. No vampire is going to want to buy a girl who is married with a werewolf. You're too risky now to buy, sweetheart. So you either have your marriage annulled to make the auction a lot easier, or you walk out that door and return back to your camp with your dog here."

"I'm still running for it. You never know if some of them might be interested of buying me."

"Are you deaf? I just said it will be impossible."

"But there are some married women who managed to get jobs even though they are protected under the werewolves. If its possible for them, it surely must be possible for me to make those clients rise up from their chairs."

"Look, sugar, I'm a businessman. I got a reputation to clear up and this job I have now is the only thing that makes these auctions possible. If I have you there on that stage, you'll be a complete disappointment to my clients and that leaves my reputation to be stained...Getting girls like yourself is easy. But selling only a few makes your hands dirty, and vampires don't like filth, they want a smooth and easy auction. If I don't offer them an easy auction that they want, my career as an auction man will be over."

"I know I can impress those clients..Can't we just..No. Can't _you_ just add anything interesting about me that can catch the attention of others? Like maybe if I can just pose – "

"Wait..Give me a minute. There might..No..Well...There might be a way for you to be sold."

"Well, what is it?" She asked.

"You see, the moment I saw you for the first time, I prepared a complete look for you that will make every vampire in that auction fight their way to buy you."

"What kind of look are you talking about?"

"You resemble so much of this one famous girl I was lucky enough to choose for my auction. The legendary girl was named Katherine, Katherine Pierce. From about twenty five years ago, she was here in Mystic Falls in the auction almost like the one that's going to be held tomorrow night. There were a few vampires who wanted her when I called her up. The highest bidder however, was Damon Salvatore, also famous for his long scandalous life of living as a long-time bachelor – not to mention his charms adds on to the label of him as a womanizer. Anyway, long story, short, they married and he turned her into a vampire."

"Katherine Pierce? Saltzman, the woman was a complete psycho to allow that son-of-a-bitch to turn her like that." Mason said.

Elena turned her head to her husband. "You know her?"

"Everyone does. She's the one who made guys like me get a job."

"How did she do that?"

"You know I still don't know the answer to that question. But she was responsible for separating the werewolves and vampires into a compatible alliance...But to me she was still one crazy bitch."

"That's what you may think. But ever since she was killed by a human riot, she became very popular to the vampires ever since. She was the very last human who was ever turned by a vampire by her own will. To this day, the couple is still remembered as the star-crossed lovers." Alaric said

"So what you're saying is that the vamps will only buy me because I look like her?"

"Duh. Why wouldn't they? The very fact that you are human and resemble so flawlessly like that legendary woman, every vampire will find it refreshing to have that woman back as if she has risen from the dead."

"I don't quite follow of how this idea is going to attract vampires to get their attention on me."

"Think of it this way, simply imagine that you are the Katherine who has been born again and risen from the dead. That woman made a large impression on the vampires. First she fell in love with a vampire. And then the next she proved her love for her lover by allowing him to turn her, betraying her own kind. This is the only way to get you that job."

"Wh-What is it that I have to do though once I get on that stage?"

"Like I said before with the other girls. Don't speak and don't move as long as I tell you to. My job is to make sure you are sold. Your job is to please your master. As for your husband here, you two should think about how you're going to contact each other. Based on who buys you, sweetheart, I doubt half the vampires in the auction will be generous enough to allow full contact to your husband."

"I don't care about that. As long as I get the job, then that's all that matters."

"Alright then. By five o'clock, your makeup crew from last time will give you another makeover. The auction starts at eight. It'll take an hour or two for all the clients to arrive and take their entrance. Right now, I have far more to do around here – contacting the press for photos and articles, new carpets, more lighting in the room, decorating the reception, and also my stage hasn't been nailed by its proper place. So return to your room, sleep as much as you can for it'll be the last time you'll ever sleep in peace."

"Alright..Thank you, Alaric."

"Don't thank me yet, Elena. Remember, you're not anyone's 'blood donor' just yet...Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Elena and Mason headed to the door. But before they closed the door, Alaric shouted out something from behind.

"Hey, but no funny business in the bedroom. I don't care if you two are married; I need the wife to be _clean_ by tomorrow night."

_**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**  
**_

The four women trapped Elena in the room with another painful makeover. There is no waxing required this time that gives Elena a relieving feeling and slightly happy, but the long process to finish her hair ruined her spirits. Emily and another large plumped woman named Meme, changed her hair into five different types of hairstyles. Emily insisted to have Elena's hair loosely curled, giving a more natural look. But Meme pressed the idea of putting Elena's hair into a bun, or creating maddening swirls with all her hair pulled back in a bun that's large like a top point of a wide hill. After two hour of painfully having her hair brushed and pulled back harshly, the two women finally chose Emily's idea of just curling Elena's hair.

Emily, aware of Elena's silent suffering, blew the steam by every strand of hair she curled with the curling iron. After finishing every strand, she finished the final touch by spraying hairspray to have the curls intact for the next few hours.

Elena got off the chair and changed – with the help of all four women – into the dress they chose for her. The dress is a slight beige white, the fabric of the skirt smoothly in swirls of ruffles, and the top is a tight corset; sewn beads attached fully on the front of the corset; a deep cut made in the center to expose her bare breasts.

Emily straightened the dress and separated Elena's hair in each side of her shoulders. Elena stood there still, looking at her reflection of the mirror placed right in front of her. The girl in the mirror is someone she doesn't know. A complete stranger who is in a gorgeous dress to take the walk of shame for a crowd of vampires.

In her entire life, Elena never once wore a dress before. Wearing it now for the first time gives her the most discomforting feeling in the pit of her stomach.

'How many dresses do I have to wear something like this to please my master?...Will I ever get use to it?' She thought.

"Meme, give me some powder and a lipstick, number 32 brick red."

Meme looked through the filled makeup box and got the things Emily asked for. She handed the makeup products to Emily. Emily first unsealed the container of powder, she dabbed the filled powder of the container once with the small round sponge. With her complete focus on Elena's face, she padded her cheeks with the sponge, smoothing all the unwanted scars to be covered.

"Will there be many vampires out there?"

"Of course, nobody comes to the auction for fun, more like to waste their time. They come for one, and one reason alone – buy girls like you to take home..Wait. On the second thought, there is another reason, publicity. The press always comes to event like this to see who's attending, what they're wearing, and their reason to attend."

"Has..Has there ever been an accident? Like, has any vampire ever attacked some of the girls when they get on stage?"

"Yes, a few accidents like that have happened. But it's usually only caused by drunken vampires, so no need to worry. Alaric this time brought plenty of werewolves to keep all his girls clean and unharmed."

"Vampires can get drunk?"

"I'm not quite sure if they can. But they sure do look drunk when they drink too much; whiskey seems to be the most effective. Vodka and tequila are not strong enough to drive those vamps nuts, it only makes them thirsty for blood."

"Thanks for that info. I better try to hide all the sweet bottles if my master might be an alcoholic."

"Just behave yourself. That's the main thing you have to do."

Emily placed the sponge back in the container of the powder, and sealed it shut. Next, she removed the cap of the lipstick and applied it on Elena's lips. She examined the color closely, and shook her head in disapproval of the color.

"It's too dark. I need something both light and dark," she turned her head and yelled, "Meme, the 32 brick red doesn't work. Bring me something like light pink."

Meme took the lipstick and the container from Emily's hands. She placed them back in the makeup box and returned back to her. But in her hand isn't the light pink lipstick Emily asked for, instead a transparent lip gloss.

She unsealed the cap and smoothed the glossy lip gloss only a dab on both the bottom and top of Elena's lips. The color is not that bright but it gives the slight shine to her lips.

"Nice choice. For once you got one right, Meme."

"What a nice thing for you to say, Emily, says the woman who can't even pick a decent color for a lipstick."

Emily smiled and lightly slapped the woman's plumped arm. "Oh hush you."

The door suddenly opened. Alaric, wearing a midnight black tuxedo with a black bow tied perfectly in the center between the points of his collar, walked in the room. He gasped as he saw Elena looking lovely in her dress.

"You ladies have fine taste. This dress is just perfect on her. Well done."

The four women gave her nod as they cleared up the mess they caused. Alaric went over to Elena and took a closer look at her.

"You look absolutely perfect. The dress fits you just well, showing those nice curves, now that's what the clients want to see...Are you nervous?"

"A little."

"Hang in there. Alright? You half an hour to kill. Until then, brace yourself for the worst, sweetheart."

"I'll remember that."

"Have you eaten?"

"Yes."

"You're not hungry?"

She shook her head.

"Good. Because if you want to eat, I highly suggest you to eat now. There will be no food served during the auction, besides the fact we vamps eat solid food too, the only thing we'll be feeding on is human blood and a few shots of brandy tonight. So make sure your stomach will be able to go through the worst, alright? I don't want you fainting from the sight of blood?"

"I've seen the sight of blood before, a lot more than vampires. I assure you, I won't faint if I ever see any of them drinking."

"Good. Well now, if you'll excuse me, I have other arrangements to make. There are few girls crying their eyes out, begging me to take them back. I'll have to deal with them later."

"Alright. I'll see you in the auction then."

"The stage, you mean, sweetheart? The stage. Don't forget."

"I won't."

_**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**  
**_

"Stefan, I am not going to that auction." Damon said.

"Come on, Damon, it won't kill you to come with us. Rebekah has to stay home with our son. I can't go to the auction alone, I need your assistance to help me choose the right 'blood donor' for little Matthew."

"I'm not going, for the thousandth time."

"Damon, please just come, for the sake of your own nephew."

"As much as I love that little guy, it'll take both your pathetic face and including his to make me change my mind. But – oh yeah – that little angel isn't here, looks like you have to go alone."

"Damon, please."

"Listen, I know you only want to get me out of the house to quiet down all the rumors to show everyone I'm a good brother, a great uncle for your little son so our family's reputation will be cleared. Well, I'm not going. I don't give a damn about those fucking vamps, so they can just think about anything they please about me. I like the way I am and how peacefully I'm living here. So if you want to complete my evening without me not going through the worst headache of mankind, go out that door and never come back."

"Damon."

"No, Stefan, just leave me alone."

Damon sat back on the sofa, his back pressed against two pillows and his ankles resting on the far end armrest of the sofa.

Damon trapped himself in the Salvatore Boarding House ever since his beloved wife died. For that many years, he remained as a zombie, suffocating himself in the house that is filled with memories of her. There are times when he forgets to feed himself or even wake up from his long enchanting sleeps – dreaming into a paradise where he can be reunited with his lovely Katherine.

The relationship between the Salvatore brothers is a complicated brotherhood. Ever since their childhood, they bonded closely, sticking up for each other and protecting one another from danger or from other boys. But as they grown to maturity, Damon disconnected the brotherhood after Stefan married the love of his life, Rebekah Mikaelson. The Mikaelson family has the scandalous reputation to be the top wealthiest families out of all the classes of vampires, however, they are also one of the most despised vampires for committing grave sins of murdering over hundreds of vampires. Before the well preserved life blossomed in the vampire territories, the Mikaelson prevented the close chance from getting kicked out of the vampire society by paying a great deed to help construct the projects to build mines by transporting diamonds and golds to vampires for wealth.

When Stefan brought in another family member into his life, his adopted five year-old son named Matthew, Damon slowly reconnected his contact with his brother, only for the sake of the child. Stefan took that chance as an opportunity to bring his brother back on his feet, but he hasn't made much effort. Although, right now, Stefan is ashamed of trying to clear his brother's name to silence any negative rumors of the Salvatore family, he cannot accept the possibility for his son to be judged and treated differently due to something he hasn't done from the vampires.

"You're right. I only want you to come to that auction so all those rumors will die down. Do..Do you have any idea what they're talking about us? Just a week ago, Rebekah overheard three women in a store of how they think you're a complete psycho, trapping yourself in that room to drive yourself nuts. And now the rumors are attacking us. Damon, Matthew became part of the family only three months ago. That's not a very long time. I..I really can't bear the thought of him coming up to me, crying because these strange vamps are talking horribly about our family. I know our relationship as brothers went out the window long time ago. But consider attending this auction with me, well-behaved, as a favor for my son."

Damon didn't speak. Stefan waited for his brother to speak, but no words escaped Damon's mouth. Stefan nodded, understanding his defeat.

"Alright then. I take your silence that you still don't wish to go. Fine..I'll just go then. So long, brother."

Stefan turned around to leave. He picked his dinner jacket from his chair and walked passed it to head to the door.

"Do I have to wear my tux?"

Stefan stopped, a relieving smile curved on his lips. "Yes. Strictly required."

"Give me ten minutes then."

Damon pulled himself up, and in vampire speed, he disappeared into thin air.

_**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__****__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**__**x**__**※**_  


The vampires arrived to the Mystic Falls 140th auction. The press gathered around in two different sides between the long red carpet that led to the entrance to the reception; they took endless pictures as the vampires posed for the cameras.

The hundredth limousine halted to a stop again. The door opened and the press flashed endless photos again once they realized the clients are the famous first born, Klaus Michaelson, and his wife, Caroline. Klaus looks dashing in his fine black tuxedo, and his curled hair brushed back smoothly. Caroline wrapped her arm around his. She took the entrance in her fine green gown, strapless and the front has an elegant fold to expose her bare chest; two separate deep cuts slashed in the front of the skirt, exposing her beautiful bare legs.

The two paused after taking only five steps as the cameras flashed in uncountable speed. The press could not leave them alone, so the couple went to the left side to make a quick interview with a vamp reporter before entering to the reception.

The strawberry blonde reporter turned her mike on and made sure the camera man is still rolling the film with the camera.

"This is Lena Pier in reporting _**E News!**_. I am here at the 140th auction of Mystic Falls, Virgina. And tonight, I got lucky enough to have a quick chat with our famous Mikaelson couple here. Hello, Klaus and Caroline. Tell me, are you here to bid in a deal for a 'blood donor' like all the others?"

She stretched her arm out to the couple for them to answer. Klaus lowered his head slightly, his mouth almost close to the mike.

"No. Caroline and I are just here just for the fun. Meeting friends and having the excuse to dress like this for the evening."

The reporter placed the mike closer to her mouth as she turned her attention to Caroline.

"That sounds fun..Anyway, I got a question for you, Caroline. Where in the world did you get that dress? I have never seen a dress like that before. I mean look at you, it has every cut and shows every right curves. Where did you get this?"

The reporter stretched her arm out again, and placed the microphone close to Caroline's mouth.

"Thank you, I'm very touched to hear that. I actually had my personal designer, Jeannete Fontae – my best friend and also the best French fashion designer in history – design this dress for me, she and I butted heads together and thought of new ideas to think about how my dress was going to look like. It was a lot of fun and I was very happy when the dress was delivered. I think the best part about getting it though is that it fits! I tried to cut down a little on type - O and forced myself to drink only +A."

"Well, that diet worked. You look great."

"Thank you."

The reporter spoke a little louder to hear.

"So, how about your plans for the next auction? Will I see you wear something as lavishing as this?"

Caroline rolled her eyes and answered with a curve of a smile. "Duh, girl. I'm gonna go all diva for the whole year."

The two ladies exchanged a high five and giggled for a short moment. The reporter placed the microphone close to her mouth again to ask a different question.

"How about kids? Any news of kids? Because you two have been married, for like what? Ten years? I mean, it's been that long but you kept yourselves – "

A sudden out roar started from the press when another limousine stopped to drop off the guests. The reporter cleared her throat and tried to speak a lot louder.

"I said, you kept yourselves quiet about having a baby! When is adoption going to pop the question?!"

The reporter stretched her arm out to have the mike closer to the couple again. Klaus leaned closer to the mike and spoke as loud as he can, keeping his eyes straight at the camera.

"We will think about it when we're ready! Ten years may be a long time! But for us, we still need an extra decade before we can bring another member of the family into our lives!"

From behind the camera, two open arms wrapped around both the couple's shoulders. Both Klaus and Caroline turned their end to the center to find Damon there. He smiled at the camera, his black shades giving his dashing smile flash his white teeth, instantly stealing the spotlight away from the couple.

"Hello Virginia!..So what are we talking about?" Damon asked playfully.

The reporter giggled a little and spoke over the mike.

"We were just talking about this wonderful couple's possible decision of adoption? Do you have any comments about that particular topic, Mr. Salvatore?"

The reporter placed the mike close to his mouth so his voice can be heard loud and clear.

"Of course, I have a say to it. I say they should. Anyone can adopt a baby, half the vamps here did and along with my baby brother who's still posing for the cameras back there..What an excellent question. Really."

Damon looked back at Caroline, giving her a quick look from her behind.

"But you know what, you got a little rounder on the waistline. Have you been drinking too much of type – O?"

Caroline stomped Damon's foot hard with her heel, and gave him a hard hit on the ribs with her elbow. Damon felt no pain, but to keep the moment more comical, he played his act by pretending her hits hurt him.

"Ow. Geez, I guess someone hasn't got enough in the bedroom. You should really work on keeping the mood tonight, Klaus."

Damon dropped his arms from the couple's shoulders and walked across the red carpet before Caroline had the chance to attack him.

Klaus pulled his wife back, thrusting his arm around her waist. "I think that would be all. Have a good evening."

As the couple walked further across the red carpet, Klaus and Caroline finally got inside. A waiter passed by them as they entered to the reception. Caroline snatched two glasses of champagne from the tray he was serving. In practically three sips, she gulped down each glasses to the very last drop.

"I hate that guy."

"Relax, Caroline. You know it's his nature to be a foolish idiot."

"Oh I know that..Huh. But what is he doing here? I don't think I ever seen Damon outside before. How long has it been exactly? Ten, twenty years?"

"I don't know. I lost track."

"I thought tonight will be a great evening to have some fun. Clearly, I was mistaken."

Klaus kissed his wife's cheek, and allowed the side of her head to rest on his shoulder. "Don't let him ruin our evening, now. We can still have our little fun."

"I hope you're right..."

* * *

In the back stage, the girls are kept hidden with their makeover crew, finishing them with their last touches on their clothes and makeup. Alaric made his last orders to his employees and gathered the girls around to say his last words to them before beginning the auction.

He clapped his hands together and started. "Alright, girls. This is it. We are two minutes late, but don't worry, everyone is waiting patiently outside. Now, I took a quick peek outside, and half the women excused themselves to the other rooms. This is a good thing, now. That means there are more men – your targets to be the buyers. Now the first I will call is Reina, make your appearance elegantly and don't you dare fall. Tonight must go smoothly without a single mistake. Understand?"

The girls nodded.

"Good...Okay. Let's get this show on the road."

Alaric straightened his bow tie, and with a quick spin of his foot, he opened the curtains and walked on stage. The vampires are casually standing around with glasses of brandy and some filled with also blood on their hands. When they saw Alaric, they immediately clapped their hands.

The cameraman turned the camera on and started the film. As for Alaric, he tapped the small black mike attached to his front breast pocket to see if it's working, then paid his attention back at the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am so pleased to have you here tonight for our 140th auction."

The vampires clapped their hands again.

"Yes, tonight, I have a very special treat for mostly the gentlemen here. So if you want to bring a gorgeous human girl with you tonight, I suggest you to prepare yourselves with your open wallets...Just about three days ago, my assistant arranged a trip for me to go to Fortuga Camp. Yes. I know that concentration camps are not exactly easy to find suitable humans. But when I arrived there, you be surprised of how many delicious treats I found. Now when the selection was made, I admit that not many girls volunteered, but I have a total of the most bravest and beautiful seven girls who will take your breaths away.

"Now our first runner up is a Californian girl. Boys, me giving me this girl to you is like throwing a bone for you to chew. This beautiful Blondie is seventeen years of age, has one sister and a father deceased from an unfortunate fate of being kept in the gas chamber. So if you have any interest in a slightly tan, natural GoldilocK kind of gal, this is the girl for you. Reina, come right this way!"

The curtains opened. A nervous Reina stood still in the center. Alaric stretched his arm out for Reina to come to where he's standing. But the girl is so lost and overwhelmed by the number of vampires she couldn't move; sweat dripped down her back and her stomach churned from the sight of numbers of blood filled in breadstick glasses.

Alaric chuckled and took her harshly by the arm, and pulled her hard to where he's standing. "I'm sorry, gentlemen, I guess our little girl is just a little nervous. Please understand her..Now, who wants to do the bidding?"

An Irish vampire raised his arm. He's dressed in an English evening suit; his dinner jacket custom made with a duckling tail from the back, a grey and black striped necktie tied around his neck, his pants held firmly with a midnight black belt, and a thin red mustache stretching above his top lip.

"One thousand."

Alaric pointed to the vampire and nodded. "I got one thousand over there. Alright. Can we go any higher than that?"

Another Irish vampire, dressed in a brick red suit with a black bow tie, raised his arm.

"Twenty five hundred."

"I got twenty five hundred from the loving Captain O'Brien over there...Do I hear three thousand?" Alaric announced loudly again.

No vampire made another bidding to beat Captain O'Brien's price.

Stefan, on the other hand, felt determined to make a bidding, he raised his arm to call out his price. But Damon took his arm and pushed it down to his side.

"Don't waste your time with Miss Cry-Baby up there."

"She seems nice. That's what a type of person I want for Matthew's 'blood donor'."

"No you don't. That girl is going to give you more tears than her own blood. There's no good to buy a girl who'll only scare your little boy. So just forget about her."

"Well, I guess you have a point there."

Alaric gave a nod to a werewolf who stood from the side of the backstage, signaling him to take her away.

"Alright everyone I'll give you three seconds for this lovely Reina here. Going once..Going twice..Sold. To Captain O'Brien."

The werewolf walked across the stage and took a tearful Reina away.

The auction went by for another two hours after a few short breaks; so far the highest price of the bidding reached only to twenty thousand and only two girls are now left.

Alaric stepped on the stage again , signaling the cameraman to start filming.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we are down to only two girls. Now I purposely saved these girls to be presented for last because they are by far the most strong headed ones out of all those other girls I presented to you all so far. I hope once I show you them, you will agree with me. My sixth girl was born in the Fortuga Camp, she is the first born out of three brothers who were all deceased five years before she ever had the strength to walk. When she was selected, she had no fear or a single teardrop in her eyes; she was just ready to say goodbye to her family and take this job. I tell you, she is the most bravest girl you will ever meet..I just hope that feisty fire in her won't go out by the time she is sold though..Miss Janet Dawson, come right this way."

The curtains opened. A hard faced Janet stood in the center. When Alaric signaled her to walk forward, she walked toward him without a single smile curved on her lips, or a sense of fear.

"As you can see, still no tears on this girl...Who wants to be the first to do the bidding?"

Four vampires called out a price range around thirty thousand, breaking the highest range of twenty thousand that has been made so far tonight. After another vampire joined, Alaric took his part to end the bidding once and for all.

"Ah. Now I got thirty five from the famous Peterson over there. In the count of three this bidding will end for the lovely Janet. Going once..Going twice..Sold!"

The werewolf walked across the stage and took Janet away.

In the audience, Stefan still hasn't chosen a single girl for his dearest Matthew. He turned his head to Damon and whispered. "Well, there's only one girl left. I need to bring a 'blood donor' with me by tomorrow."

"Oh no you don't. You already have like two at home. They'll do."

"Yes, but they scare Matthew."

"Well, that's just your problem."

"Whatever. Whoever this girl is, I'm going to buy her whether she's a cry baby or hardcore."

"And you still call yourself the best daddy in the world," Damon muttered under his breath.

Alaric pressed his hands together and rubbed them together to form a warm friction. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we have one more left. Now before I present her to you, I must warn you all that this girl will take you by surprise. Her face resembles a lot..a lot like someone we all once knew. So to make things clear, this girl is purely human and whatever questions you might have, I cannot answer them. So without further or due, ladies and gentlemen, I like to present the unique, beautiful Elena Gilbert, the girl who was scarred deeply in both emotional and physical ways. In the age of ten, she has been whipped and tortured in the gas chamber, but she is still very much alive and also her beauty is still intact. Her age is only by twenty two. If you think that's too young, well, wait until you see her. Come right this way, Elena."

The curtain opened again. Elena stood in the center of the stage, a limelight shining straight across her. Just as Alaric hoped for, the audience took her by surprise and an exhilarating excitement aroused the room.

Stefan took Damon by the arm and forced him to stand up. "Let's go. I could wait another month to get a 'blood donor'."

Damon yanked his arm off his grasp. "Like hell I will." He muttered.

He went across the room to go closer to the stage. His unblinking eyes concentrated fully on Elena. He's filled with disbelief of how much she resembles his wife.

'Katherine? Katherine is that you? After all these years, God is finally generous enough to bring you back now.' He thought.

Elena walked toward Alaric, and he placed his hand on her shoulder before starting to speak again.

"I clearly understand of how astonished you all are. I was quite taken back of how this ordinary girl resembles so much like the famous woman we all remember, Katherine Pierce. Ah. That woman will always be remembered for the great peace she has caused...Anyway, getting back to our auction to this lovely Miss Gilbert. Who wants to do the bidding?"

Before Damon raised his arm to say his price, over thirty other male vampires called out their price. The next five minutes the price range raised to thousands and came to a stop to about five hundred thousand dollars by Elijah Mikaelson, the eldest brother in the Mikaelson family.

Alaric pointed straight ahead at the dashing, dark faced Elijah. "We have reached to five hundred thousand. My God, that is a new record in history."

Elijah looked ahead at Elena with a sly curve on the corner of his mouth. There is no easy sign on his expression of appealing desire for the girl, but behind his mysterious Mona Lisa smile, he clearly isn't going to allow any vampire take Elena away from him.

"Is there any more bidders for this beautiful lady? Hmmm? Anyone?"

Damon raised his arm at this point, removing his sunglasses as he causally announced his price.

"One million dollars."

The cameraman turned the camera to film Damon, and also the other vampires now whispering amongst each other. Damon's depression over his wife's death is no mystery to any of the vampires. They actually expected for the man to join the bidding anyway.

'You finally made your price. What took you so long, Salvatore?' Alaric thought to himself.

Alaric clapped his hands together and stretched out one of his arms, pointing his open hand straight at Damon.

"One million dollars! Wow, now that is a record. Round of applause for Mr. Damon Salvatore!"

The audience clapped their hands, but not by excitement yet concern.

Alaric kept his eyes on both Elijah and Damon, unsure of who exactly will win. "Then if Mr. Michaelson doesn't wish to go any higher than that. I will conclude this auction in three seconds. Going once..Going twice.."

Elijah raised his arm again before Alaric got to three. "Five million dollars. In cash."

He snapped his fingers and two men dressed in black stepped forward, two open briefcases held out on their hands, each one filled with stashes of hundred dollar bills.

"Five million dollars. Now this is some evening, you gentlemen are crazy about this one girl, aren't you?"

Alaric took Elena's left hand and held it up in the air for everyone to see her wedding band on her finger.

"But I must warn you two before you go any further, this girl recently eloped here in Mystic Fall just last night with a werewolf. As you can tell by the ring on her finger...You two know very well of the circumstances to keep a girl legally guarded by a pack of dogs. So if you still wish to buy this girl, by all means, continue to empty out your wallets, but if you don't want to risk anything with her, just drop out of the bidding now."

Elijah closed both the briefcases shut with his hands without bothering to turn around. In vampire speed, he appeared in a flash right in front of the stage. Elena gasped as his sudden hands grabbed the end of her skirt and lifted it slightly, revealing her bare ankles.

"Do you mind if I take a glimpse of your legs, beautiful?"

Elena turned her head shakily to Alaric. Alaric pulled her back protectively, but still not ruining his cool.

"That all depends, Elijah, are you going to buy her or not? Because I don't intend to waste my time with clients who just want to play with my girls."

"I'm not interested of interfering with any werewolves, but the girl does reach to my satisfactory, I can't seem to refuse."

"Well, then. Elena, lift your skirt a little for the dead man to see."

Elena whispered uneasy shaken words. "Al-Alaric..I..I can't..."

Elijah smiled by her refusal. Again, he took one step forward, his body moving in lightening speed on top of the stage. From behind her, she almost screamed when she felt cold arms wrapped around her waist. His head leaned on the side of her neck, and his cold marble cheek touching the side of her jaw line. Elena gulped hard as he inhaled her sweet scent deeply through his nostrils.

"You smell nice." He muttered.

Damon can taste nothing but bitter arousing fury. He closed one of his cold hands into a death grip fist, closing it tighter the longer his eyes watched Elijah's hands smooth hard against Elena's stomach. But in order to win the girl, he composed himself into a more calm and soothing manner, swallowing away the sour taste of rage and maddening desire for blood.

"Come on, gentlemen. I don't have all day. Are you going to raise the bidding, or not?" Alaric asked.

Elijah gave Alaric a nod, his eyes still focused on Elena's frightful face. "I'll double the price to ten million."

Alaric closed his hands together and announced again to the audience. "I am loving this evening very much. You all have no idea..We have ten million for Elijah here, who seems to not want to let go of my precious girl."

Damon took a step forward, casually buttoning the one button sewn on his black dinner jacket. "Ten million dollars? You just love to play with your money, don't you, Elijah?"

Elijah turned his head to look at Damon. "Of course, I wouldn't let this girl slip away from my fingers. You had Katherine to play with, now let me have the turn with this girl."

"You know that's not going to happen. Saltzman! I make my price to twenty million."

Elijah leaned in Elena's ear, making her shiver as his cold breath brushed in the warmness of her ear. "Now that's the price I was waiting for. As much as I want you, Elena, I have no intention to be involved with a well guarded girl like you...But I will see you again."

He pressed his cold lips on her cheek before releasing her. He turned to Alaric and straightened his coat properly as he spoke. "I'm dropping out of my bidding."

"Oh come now, Elijah, don't tell me twenty million is too much for you." Alaric said.

"No, it's not that. I wasn't intending to buy this girl anyway. I just wanted to empty out Damon's pockets as much as possible. But since I had my fun, you can allow the Salvatore brother to collect his prize."

Elijah jumped off the stage. As he passed by Damon, his shoulder roughly pushed Damon's. Damon ignored him as Elijah walked straight to the exit with the two guards following behind him with his two briefcases.

"I guess Damon Salvatore is the winner then. Congratulations, Damon...As for the rest of you, I hope you have a very good evening. That concludes for our auction tonight. If you like, please stay, have a drink or dance while I arrange the contracts with our lucky winners..Goodnight."

The werewolf from earlier took Elena by the arm and escorted her off the stage. Alaric turned around, removing the microphone off his jacket as he walked straight between the red curtains.

* * *

The makeover crew members busied themselves with each of the seven girls to change them before sending them to their masters' homes.

This time Elena's crew simply changed her into a dress – the blue dress Alaric personally order for her – and curled her hair again to keep the curls intact for the evening. Besides the burning steam brushing against her cheek and the light padding of a round sponge masking her face, Elena feels nothing but the worst frightful fear she never thought she'll ever experience before. The first greatest fear she felt was the time a werewolf whipped her when she was only ten. The second time was when she was taken to the gas chamber from spitting at a werewolf's face. Right now is almost the same fear she experienced before, accept this time she chose to get herself into this.

Emily curled the last strand of Elena's hair, and again kindly blew the steam to make the process a little easier for Elena. "There. You're all finished."

"Oh."

"Are you ready?"

"...No..."

"Relax. Remember, once this all ends by the time that Salvatore gets tired of you, you'll be free to return to your unharmed family. The vampires can't harm you anymore...I should know, we're both on the same page now."

"I know...But..But I'm still a little scared."

"Good. Fear will keep you strong and alert. Just never displease him. Alright? This job is worth everything, every life in your family and including yourself. Never forget that."

"I won't."

The door suddenly opened. Mason entered. Emily took Elena's hand and pulled her up to stand up. "It's time for you to go, Elena. Good luck. And stay alive."

"Thank you..Thank you, Emily."

Elena lightly squeezed her hand before Emily released it. Mason went over to her, taking her hand and walked straight out the door.

They walked halfway down the hallway before Mason stopped her for a moment. He took both her hands and lifted them up to his lips to kiss each one of them.

"Okay. This is it...Just..Just be careful. Okay?"

"I will...Watch out for my family, Mason. Please."

"You know I will."

"...Do you think I'll ever be able to contact you?"

"I'm not so sure yet. I doubt that might be possible though. But I might be able to pull a few strings with Saltzman."

"Please try."

"I will. And don't ever lose this," he placed the marriage documents on her hands, "it'll be hard I know, but if anything happens to you, I'll be there for you."

"I know you will. Thank you, Mason."

"Don't thank me yet. Thank me when you return safely back to your family..back to me."


	4. One Night With Damon

Alaric pointed to the black underline on the far end side of the contract. "I just need your signature there. It confirms that I am not responsible for whatever that might happen to you or the girl's health conditions."

Damon scribbled his signature on the line and closed the lid of the pen. "Is that all? Or is there anything else I have to sign?"

"No. That is all, Mr. Salvatore. As for Elena, she is already on her way to your home right now."

"Good. I better go there right now."

"Have a good evening, sir. I hope you find my girl very..very pleasing."

"I will. Goodnight, Saltzman."

Damon left the pen on the table and headed out the door. Outside, Stefan came up to him, who waited for him to come out of the room. Damon ignore him and walked down the hallway to reach to the exit. But Stefan followed him.

"Damon, what the hell was that?"

"What the hell was what? That I'm finally taking care of myself by buying a 'blood donor'? Or that I just made a complete fool of myself for buying a human who looks exactly like my wife?"

"Both. Look, Damon. Katherine is dead. She no longer exist in this world. Being with that girl makes it more difficult for you to let that woman go."

"Who said I was ever going to let Katherine go?"

"You didn't. But when a person dies, Stefan, the mourner learns to accept what it is and move on."

"Sometimes a mourner can be lucky by having a second chance with the people they love."

"That girl is not a chance for you to be with Katherine again. She is not Katherine, Damon. I know she resembles so much like her, but she's not."

"I know."

"Then get back in that room and get your money back."

"No."

Stefan grabbed him by the arm and stopped him right there. "Damon. Just stop this."

"No. Listen. _You_ stop this. I know I'm crazy enough to make myself go this far. But once I find out I made a mistake if all this doesn't work out, I'll learn from it, at least. I don't want you to keep tagging along in my life and make decisions for me of what's right and good...God. I feel like sometimes you don't realize _I'm_ your older brother."

"Damon."

Damon yanked his arm off his grasp, and with his pursed lips he said. "I had enough of you. If you ever show up in front of me ever again, I'm going to cut you out of my life completely. Regardless if your dearest Matthew questions why he can't see his own dearest uncle anymore."

Before Stefan opened his mouth to speak, Damon disappeared in thin air.

* * *

Outside in the Salvatore Boarding House, the car pulled over to drop Elena off. Since it is illegal for werewolves to trespass a vampire's household, one of Alaric's men escorted Elena inside. She held onto the side of her skirt, lifting it slightly up to her ankle to prevent herself from tripping. As they entered the house, Elena kept her eyes on the floor as the vampire escorted her upstairs. The house is dark but decorated in a respectable fashion, yet Elena paid no attention to any of it.

When the vampire unlocked a door to her new room, he pushed her lightly inside and shut the door closed, locking it shut. Elena finally lifted her eyes from the floor. Her room is also dark and large. The floor is matted with a red brick floral carpet, a fire place roaring fire with fresh lumbers of wood, the walls hanging a few collections of paintings, and a large bed placed a few feet away from the two open windows.

By the time the footsteps of the vampire's footsteps died down, Elena safely walked straight across the bed and sat down. Time doesn't tell when her new master is going to arrive, not that she is eager to meet him in person though.

In Elena's mind, the anxiety level inside her is not rising because of the fact she is now in the very house of a vampire, but also the fact that being bought by this one particular vampire might cause more difficulty. Since now she knows that her owner is known as the famous "Romeo" she heard so much about, it is unlikely that he chose to buy her for his own survival needs.

'Of all vampires, it has to be him..Some dead guy still so attached to his dead wife. I wonder, will he see me as just me - a desperate 'blood donor' for survival, or does he see me as a chance to be his wife again? I mean, how similar do I look like this Katherine anyway.' She thought.

* * *

_**Two hours later…**_

* * *

Damon still hasn't arrived. As for Elena, as frightfully nervous she is, her exhaustion betrayed her to fall into a deep sleep.

For what might happen to her next is the question. How far can she manage to please this Damon Salvatore?..How will her life change once she returns into the arms of the man she does not love? The only thing that keeps her hopes up is the fact that her family is safe and receiving the treatment they have never received before. What could be better than living in a safe home with plenty of food to eat, no longer having to wake up every morning and night to work in filthy areas? Isn't it better to enjoy what is given to you before your time ends into a short pause, death?

The harsh evening breeze blew in the room from the open windows. The wind reached to where Elena is sleeping, brushing against her cheek. She turned her head to side, her eyes still closed.

By the windowsill a small shadow started to form, a shape of a bird, a black crow. The mysterious crow stood there still, angling its dark eyes straight at Elena. Through the darkness of its diamond eyes, the crow watched Elena in silence, keeping its beak closed from cawing.

The breeze blew again across Elena's bare ankles and up to her cheeks. Elena rubbed her cheek as the cold wind brushed it on the same spot. She slowly opened her eyes. She is relieved that her master is still not here. Being groped straightforward by Elijah Mikaelson already scarred her of the great danger it is of being near a vampire.

She pressed her hands against the mattress, pulling herself up to sit upright. Her hands closed to a loose fist and with them, she rubbed her tired eyes. The crow, still perched on the window sill, still stood its ground.

"...Is this even the right house?" She asked herself in a whisper.

Elena stretched out her arms and yawned. By the time her eyes caught the sight of the crow by the window, she looked at it in disbelief, thinking it's a dream. She rubbed her eyes again for a long moment to wake herself from this so-called dream. When she dropped her hands, the crow disappeared.

"Great..Now I'm seeing things."

She leant back on the bed until her back touched against it. She stretched her arms out above her head, her eyes focused deeply on the dullness of the ceiling.

"Should I be concerned about that, sleepy head?"

Hearing his voice for the second time still caused the same effect that has happened back at the auction. Elena's heart pounded loudly to her ears, and her lungs breathing in more oxygen she needed.

'He's here..He's finally here...Oh my God...Oh my God..." She frightfully thought.

Damon, standing by the side of the bed, removed his dinner jacket and unbuttoned his white dress shirt to make himself comfortable. Elena forced her body not to move a single muscle, clearly paralyzed of his presence and the major awkwardness of how he is comfortably removing his clothes on the first night they are acquainted.

"So you are the doppelganger? You know, buying you to my ownership was a really expensive deal. You should be glad that creepy Mikaelson didn't buy you though. Believe me, you'll be scared to death of what he'll do to you – one thing that douche bag doesn't know what to do is control himself, no one has the power to stop him and that includes you too."

He untied his bow tie with one yank on one side of it and slipped it off, along with his dress shirt. Elena nervously tried her best to avoid her eyes from his bare figure. She wants nothing but to be left alone.

"...Are you going to sleep here?" She asked anxiously.

"Yes. Why do you think I'm undressing myself?"

"I..I thought you were giving my own room..."

"I did. But I'm not sure why you're in my room right now. Who brought you here?"

A flush of relief washed her worries away instantly. She slowly pulled herself up, turning her back on him. "Alaric ordered a vampire to take me here. I guess he didn't really know where my room was supposed to be."

Damon slipped his shoes off next, and pushed them to the side. "Well, either you want to stay here – which I totally don't mind – or you want to sleep alone tonight, come with me."

He turned around and walked toward the door. But Elena remained where she is. Damon turned his head, tilting it slightly in impatience.

"You coming, Dorthy Gale, or not? Because your twinkle shoes are out of batteries in the moment."

"Dorthy, who?"

"Right. You never watched that movie have you."

"What's a movie?"

"Boy those dogs kept your life boring, haven't they?..Hmm...Never mind about that though, come follow me. I have plenty of spare rooms you can stay at."

Elena still didn't move. Damon turned his body, leaning against the door with his arms crosses across his chest. "Are you coming or what?"

She didn't answer.

"I promise I won't bite tonight. I'm not thirsty right now."

Elena lifted her eyes at his face, but slowly she lowered her head down again. Damon, growing more impatient, appeared in front of her in vampire speed that aroused her even more into full astonishment. He bend down in front of her, and took both her wrists with his cold hands.

"Do you want to sleep here?"

Elena shook her head.

"Fine. Then you either get up and follow me, or else I'll carry you there myself if you still don't move."

"...You promise you won't bite me."

"I already told you, I'm not thirsty. So for tonight, you're safe."

"Okay..."

He stood back up as she rose back up to her feet. In a quick move, she pulled her arms away from his hands until they slipped off her wrists. He smiled as she speed walked straight out the door.

* * *

"This is my room?"

Damon nodded, leaning against the side of the door. She took a few steps forward, looking around the large cold room, almost looking exactly like his except the bed sheets her white with lavender pillows.

"You like it?"

"...It's not so bad..."

Her hands went behind the back of her dress, trying to pull the zipper down. Damon is amused by how she's not minding to change while he's still in the room. With his arms folded across his chest, he asked with his crow black hair touching the side of the door.

"You need help there?"

Elena shook her head, rotating the heel of her feet slightly until her body faced from behind him. Her hands seem to struggle to reach the zipper for she never wore any clothes that required zipping anything before; she's been wearing striped pajamas since she was born, after all!

"Don't you even mind that I'm here?"

"No. Why should I mind?"

"Well, I'm not sure if your mother ever thought you any manners, but it's unlike for a girl like you to undress yourself while a man is in the same room with you."

"Where I come from there's always someone watching, and whom I'm referring to are those filthy dogs. I hate them. I always have. But during those times, it's either I strip my clothes off to wash in public, out in that freezing cold water, or I keep those clothes on and stand around in the mud, dirty and disgusting...So thank you, for mentioning about a remark of manners. But have you forgotten it's _your_ choice to leave, or feast your eyes on a human that you're so willing to bite."

"Ha. Alaric wasn't kidding about your deep feisty side. I must say, I like it. It's more fun to be with a girl like that – it makes me feel slightly better that I spent all that money to get you."

"Speaking of manners, _master_, perhaps you can come over here and help with this darn zipper – I can't seem to zip it down."

"Master? I like the sound of that."

"Well, I could keep saying it if you do me this favor."

"Deal."

He walked over to her and came to a stop by the time he stood behind her. Elena gathered all her hair with one hand and lifted it up. With delicate fingers, he grabbed the zipper with one hand and – in great opportunity – placed the other on the upper side of her back, smoothing that one hand slowly down to her waist as he lowered the zipper down. Elena felt a bit relieved earlier when he assured her he wasn't thirsty. But she is concerned now if he is thirsty for desirous lust.

"There. All done."

"Thank you."

"You forgot something."

She craned her neck slightly to look at him. "And what is that?"

"What's my name?"

Elena sighed. "You know I was kidding..Addressing you as master is way too awkward and weird to say. Can't I just call you by your name? It's better that way."

"If you like...So go on. Say it."

"Say what?"

"Call me by my name."

Her eyebrows crossed together, looking a bit confused of why that's necessary to do. "Do I have to? I don't see why I should."

'Of course you do. I have waited for you to call me by that name for years, Katherine..Please..Just one more time, say it. Say that God forsaken name one last time, wife.' His mind fogged of those words, forcing to lose his cool and replace his mocking, coy expression into a more harden look that frightened Elena to see such a dark side in him for the first time.

"Damon."

His eyelids closed. His mind savored the sound of that name, forcing it to remember this exact moment.

"Again..."

"Damon."

He suddenly took her by both her arms, and angrily he confronted her a lot closer until his bare chest pressed against the front of her dress.

"Say it one more time."

Elena shook her head. She is too confused of why he is wanting her to call him by his name. And his direct attitude of touching her like this is pushing her further off the edge.

"Damon, please..You're scaring me..."

A horrific dry smile curved on his lips. His grip on her arms tightened as his mouth moved again to speak. "Huh. There you again..There you again..."

"Damon, are you okay?"

"Say that again. One more time."

"Why?..I-I don't understand."

"Just do it." He urged.

Elena shook her head. "No. No, I won't. Now let me go."

"I said. Say it one more time."

Her confidence came to betray her to continue to disobey his command. "I said, I won't...You're not yourself right now. Slap out of it..I'm not sure if you drank something earlier or if you're fooling around, but just stop being like this and leave."

The smile on his lips straightened into a dangerous line. His dark eyes opened, looking straight at Elena's face. He gripped her arms a lot tighter than before until he can feel her bare bones deep in her flesh. Elena gasped in pain, but he forced her to stand upright.

"I think I've been to soft on you..I don't know how crazy that Saltzman was, but he certainly made the wrong choices in that camp of yours. He may have told you the great warnings of taking this job and how you should present yourselves to the vampires. But one valuable lesson he has never taught you is that if you ever – I mean, _ever_ – disobey a vampire, most considerably your master, then where you end up is lying straight down on the floor, dead...You should know the great truth of death by now. In that camp, didn't you feel that disgusting mud deep in your toes, the lice and insects crawling all over your skin, and the food; tasteless and worth not eating, more fit for an animal? You remember, don't you?"

Tears rolled down her eyes. But Damon's speech continued on as his face leaned closer to hers, breathing his cold breath against her cheeks.

"You love your family so dearly, don't you? They're living happily now, eating real food for the first time, sleeping in an actual bed for as long as they want, and being able to bathe in warm water. Isn't that a lovely image of your family living as real human beings, other than as chained animals from a zoo? But you also know that that all could change by my power, by my word. I can turn you back right now and see to that you will be executed and along with your family."

Elena shook her head, forcing her trembling jaw to move. "You can't do that. I'm protected..I-I have a hu-husband to take care of me now. A werewolf, a fucking damn good werewolf who has a pack that can protect me and my family."

"I'm fully aware of your convenient marriage to that slimy animal. But I have connections, Elena, anything is possible for me, even with involving the werewolves..I highly doubt that every one of his dogs will agree to protect you. Believe me, Elena, not all werewolves are the same. The main thing both species – and I mean, both a werewolf and a vampire – is that we have greed that can't be swallowed. They don't want to risk their lives to protect just you and your small family – they have lives too, if you haven't noticed."

"Mason will protect me, at least..So get any idea of murder out of your head, or else..or else I'll contact my husband and he'll finish you off with his bare fists."

"You mean claws?" He mocked.

"At least he treats me decently like a human. Unlike you, Damon Salvatore, you accept this whole..this whole damn system of separating humans as if..as if they're fucking animals. Am I an animal to you? If you say 'walk', do you think I'll walk. O-Or if you say 'sit, do you think I'll sit?"

"Yes. And I will most certainly make sure of that."

"I'm never going to obey you..When I was locked in a room in the Fortuga Cabin before I was sent to Mystic Falls, I made a revolution to myself; a strong personal oath that I will risk everything to keep my family happy before we die. I know that I sound like I'm traitor – I mean, a liar, a hypocrite of saying all that but now suddenly going against what I agreed on. But it..it hurts, and makes me so mad for me to hear you say how weak I am and – "

"But you are." He cut in.

"Will you let me finish?"

"It's pointless for you to finish."

"Now wait a minute."

"No, you wait a minute. Elena Gilbert, you are human, a little girl who is out in the world filled with vampires to keep her family safe and alive. You get how the whole system goes. If you take a job as a 'blood donor', I pay for all the expenses for your family. That's how it is. Now you have that, along with the protection of your lover boy back home. But you forgot again of what _you_ have to do."

"I know what I have to do. I just need to give you my blood. And my blood only."

He shook. "You're wrong there again, Dorthy. Little Miss Twinkle-Shoes requires more than simply repeating the words 'there's no place like home'. You need to give me _everything_ that belongs to you. Every single last bit of you that'll please me."

"I..I don't follow what you mean."

"Perhaps, I can demonstrate it to you to give you a better idea of what I mean."

In less than a minute, Elena's body instantly turned around, her back pressed so closely to his freezing cold torso. He trapped her in a death grip with his arm wrapped around her waist. She punched him in the ribs with her elbows, but it only resulted for getting herself hurt instead of him. He pressed his lips against the side of his neck, inhaling deeply through his nostrils as his other free hand stroked deeply through roots of her hair.

"One. Your blood. Nothing but that sweet, salty blood. You're right on that one. But of course, it doesn't end there of what you have to offer."

His hand slid down to her neck, and lower to her bare chest. He smoothed in circles once his hands reached to the center.

"Two. Your trust. I want you to know that I am your master, and you are mine..You belong to no one, not even your husband."

"That's not fair."

"Life is supposed to be unfair, Elena. Being angry and desiring for revenge is what keeps us alive."

His hand smoothed to the right until he got to her shoulder. "Three. Your respect. As much as I love your spunk, keep it down a little, even this chip in your shoulder shows your personality as this stubborn angry girl, I lose my temper very easily and you won't be able to imagine what could happen to you once I lose my control."

The same experience of how she was almost infected with typhus from the filth of the mud, the touch of his hands on her most private and sensitive areas are destroying her into a deep emotional anxiety she felt from the same experience way back.

"Does it end there?" She asked with her teeth clenched tightly together.

"There's one more. Four. The last one to your to-do list."

His hand smoothed down to her waist, slipping into the open area of the back of her open dress, resting his hand on her bare belly.

She gasped as she felt the sudden cold figure of his hand in that area. "Hey! Stop it!"

"Stand still..As I was saying, the last thing to your list is your body."

"That was never in the contract I signed."

"It doesn't have to be. Remember, I'm your master."

"Look, I'm not going to give you that much. Allowing you to suck my neck or wrist – anywhere else you bite – is already hard enough."

"Then you're not ready. You should have never left that camp then."

"No girl like me can ever be prepared to accept a job like this..If you call this a job."

"You're absolutely correct. A 'blood donor' isn't a job, it's slavery. So I'll repeat myself again, and don't think I won't take this into action. You either say to my face that you accept what I just told you, or you either walk away and the whole deal is off. It's your choice."

"You can't do that. If you do, then my family will be forced out of that house Saltzman bought them."

"Exactly. So make the choice."

"I..Oh. You're evil..."

"You have no idea how many times I heard that from your kind, adding on to thousands of other vampires I know here."

"Well, they're clearly right about that one fact."

"But I am a generous person, Elena. And to prove it to you, I'll make this decision for you a lot easier the 'Saltzman way'. I'm going to count to three, and by the time I say the last number, our deal will be simply off. Alright? One..."

"Hey. That's not enough time for me to think."

"You thought things through enough. You know all the information you need. Two..."

"You're counting to fast."

"You're wrong there for the hundredth time again, Elena. You're supposed to say I'm not counting fast enough. Three...There. The deal is off."

"I'll do it." She quickly replied."

"You sure of that?"

"...Yes..Now, can tonight be a evening when I can be freely charged from all those things you just said."

"Of course, I'll be nice to accept that. But let's put all this to a little test..Call me by my name one more time?"

"Damon."She mumbled.

Damon smiled, giving her a kiss on the back of the head. "Now that's my girl. Goodnight."

He dropped his arms from her waist, and less than a second he disappeared.

Elena's knee buckled weakly and gave in as she slowly fell on her knees. Her eyes wandered straight ahead in disbelief. Words are tangled in her tongue by the whole situation that just happened.

'I'm a slave..I'm really a slave. I can tell if I'm hungry, or if I hate someone or if I love and care for someone or if I really don't want to marry someone. But..But I was so stupid enough not to realize that I allowed myself to believe I lived as a person when actually I've been a slave all this time. From birth to this day, I'm nothing but a fucking slave! A slave!...'

Great depression soared her to remain in the floor. The unawareness of the hidden "secret" to her occupation forced a deep crack to Elena's self-esteem.

If anyone wakes up in the morning, still alive and well, will you be happy to be breathing in the miserable life as living a slave? Is it really better to be thankful to live when you're treated nothing but an object, a thing the enemies use for their own advantage?...A nightmare is better to be so trapped in such a reality. But right now, in the new prison, the lovely Salvatore Boarding House, is unfortunately no nightmare, and the future lies to Elena's effort to please Damon, a vampire still having his demands for needs; desire and lust still intact in his dark heart. Only a miracle or at least a stranger's encouragement can give a little push for Elena to build her strength in order to do her job.._jobs_, I mean. Jobs equaling into three words: 'blood donor'/mistress/obedient servant.


	5. First Day as a Slave

**_Dear my awesome readers, _**

_**I deeply apologize for my delay. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and forgive me. I've been very busy since last week, so I didn't have the time to kill a spare of two or three hours to finish a chapter for you guys. Again I'm really sorry. Enjoy!**_

_**~ H.**_

A cold fog swallowed the sun up in the sky. Through the open windows, the cold fog entered the room, reaching all the way to where Elena is. As the coldness brushed across her bare skin, it forced her to wake up.

A shiver started up her spine, making her teeth rattle. With both her hands, she pulled herself up to sit upright. She looked around the room, disappointment written all over her face.

"So it wasn't a dream...Everything is still real..."

The first step of her slavery begins now.

* * *

Elena, still wearing the blue dress with her once perfectly curled hair slightly frizzy now, silently went downstairs barefoot – the shoes her makeup crew chose for her were hurting her feet ever since she arrived.

There is no one in the house, not even a single sound of a footstep except for her own is heard. She has no knowledge of any of the rooms around the house. But the smell of welcoming food provided a trail for her to follow. While she sniffed her way to some unfamiliar room, she cautiously eyed every corner of the room – looking back over her shoulder – in case she might see Damon. By the time the smell came to a stop by two sliding doors, which she's guessing is the dining room, she grabbed both the door knobs and slid them open.

Inside is a long wooden dining table with only a single center piece in the center – a transparent bowl filled with the heads of white lilies and fresh green leaves. Each end of the table is occupied with empty chairs. As for the rest of the open areas, all there are left are a kitchen cabinet filled with fine china and glasses, a chandelier light shining above the ceiling, and a few artistic paintings hung on the walls. But the only attention Elena has on in the room is a plate that carries a steaming hot meal with a glass of orange juice that are placed on the head of the table.

Even though the food is placed so far away, she can still smell the mouthwatering meal from all the way from where she is standing. Instead of walking cautiously as she did when she got downstairs, she ran toward to that end of the table and sat herself down, digging into the meal without bothering to use the silverware.

All there is served on the plate are a side of scrambled eggs – seasoned with a pinch of salt and grinded garlic – and two thick morning sausages with two pancakes smeared with a thin square of butter and a pool of maple syrup. Elena ate such fine food before during the times she stayed in Fortuga Cabin and the hotel Saltzman arranged. But she never thought that she would eat the same delicious meals again.

She filled her mouth with food, not minding to stain her face. Since last night, she has been sick of grief and agony after her first meeting with her master. But this morning, all there is left to feel is hunger. Although such agony of the truth of her slavery haunts her, one thing that Elena is going to accomplish is to take care of herself and stay alive. Such drastic episodes of the journey with the dangerous vampire has not occurred to her just yet, but since the deal is sealed and finished, she must be prepared for whatever she must do to please this lustful bachelor, and hopefully keep her guard with him in time..As if that might be possible, though.

Elena is close to finishing her breakfast. All there is left is half a sausage and a small piece of pancake. Feeling already full to her stomach, she picked up the sausage with her sticky fingers and took a bite from it, chewing slowly to allow her stomach to digest properly on the food she just consumed less than an unhealthy speed of four minutes.

The peace suddenly broke away its curse. And as Elena feared, she has finally received the company she so desperately did not wish to have. Damon came in the room. He is wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweat pants, shirtless and doesn't seem to be embarrassed to show his well-built bare chest.

Her heart pounded so fast just as it did last night. But this time she is determined to set things right differently. She has no power against her master. She already made the deal with Saltzman and also finalized from full protection to her spouse. The only thing left for her to do – the obvious truth that Damon was clearly right about last night – is her job.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

He walked around the table until he got to where she is sitting. Elena gave him a confident nod, lowering her eyes on the plate.

"Sort of..."

She smeared the piece of pancake on the small pool of syrup and finished it in one bite. She chew slowly as he bended down beside her. Her eyes remained its low distance as Damon grabbed the front two legs of the chair and slid the chair for it to face him.

Elena lifted her hands slightly up, trying not to touch him with her sticky fingers. Damon's hands released from the legs of the chair, and smoothed its way slowly up to her ankles until they reached her warm waist. He went on his knees and scooted closer to her body, smoothing the fabric of her dress with his cold hands. With all the strength and confidence she can build, she managed to keep her cool.

"I'm glad to hear that...Look at me."

Elena obeyed, lifting her head to look straight at his pale blue eyes. They're as cold and sharp looking as the temperature of his skin.

"I need to wash my hands. Let me go so I can wash them."

Damon looked down at her hands. His head leaned closer to them, and with his mouth slightly ajar, he put her first two fingers in his mouth, licking the bit of syrup with his tongue. Elena waited patiently for him to finish, swallowing her feeling of slight disgust and nervousness away. But she grew anxious as she felt her fingertip prick on something sharp. She knows fully well that sharp object is nothing more than his fang. His eyes fell into a dangerous black and red like an eclipse blinding the flaming redness of the sun into a shield of blackness. He sucked the blood, devouring the sweet taste than the taste of the syrup.

It is obvious now that her master is clearly hungry, just as she was hungry before she had her breakfast. But Damon is certainly not going to be generous enough to eat human food as she did; he wants the food that his kind consumes, blood.

"D-Damon..That hurts..." She gasped.

Damon sucked on her fingers for another long moment and then finally released them. Elena's hand trembled as she saw one of her fingertip continuing to drip blood. Damon's eyes however, remain its unnaturally dark colors.

"More..."

Elena lifted her head to look at the darken creature in front of her in fear.

'I thought he said he wasn't thirsty last night..How could such a thirst come back so soon?...' She thought to herself miserably.

As shaken as she is feeling from the inside, she is still determined to do her job right, the job that any girl would scream to walk away from. She clenched both her hands into tighten fists, not caring that one of her hands is stained with her blood. She shakily curved an uneasy smile and lifted one of her arms out to him.

"Okay. Okay, here. Just go for it...Just not too much..."

"That's a rule that no vampire keeps, Elena. Silly of you to beg for that."

He grabbed her arm with both ends. He opened his mouth, showing the frightening twin fangs on his front top teeth. In less than a second, Elena leaned back on the chair miserably in pain as Damon sucked the blood from her arm with his fangs remaining planted in her skin.

The process of this feeding went on for a long time and it unfortunately resulted to Elena feeling light headed and growing unnaturally cold from too much blood loss. Damon can feel the coldness building from the touch of her arms. As much as he craves for more, he forced himself to stop. His fangs finally released itself from the skin of her arm and returned hidden as he closed his mouth. His mouth is covered in blood, dripping a few drops down his chin.

As for Elena, she remain so still with her back against the chair. Damon released his fangs again and bit into one of his wrists. As blood started to overflow from the two holes he just made, he gently lifted Elena's head and placed his wrist in her mouth. Immediately life returned to her cold, frail body as she drank the oddly sweet taste of his blood. She feels noting but discomfort from him to hear her breathe so heavily and literally feed on his blood with such excitement and desire. The healing process, on the other hand, in her body – returning its warm temperature and closing the small holes on her arm and fingertip – gave nothing but relief to her.

She slowly pushed his arm away, signaling him she has had enough. She clenched her stomach of the disgusting action she has done, but the sight of Damon's wrist distracted her into an astonishing sight. The injury of his wrist immediately started to close, the two holes that were once on his wrist was gone and clean without a single stain of blood.

"H-H-How did you do th-that?"

She lifted her eyes up to his, relieved even more to find that the pale blue color returned.

"Simple. You give me your blood to keep me strong and alive, then in exchange, I give you my blood for you to heal of the scars I gave you. Isn't that a generous offer?"

"Not entirely..But I guess..."

Damon gently took her arms and embraced her. "You're still trembling. Don't worry, Elena. It's all over."

"You mean for now..."

"I promise I'll give you my blood for you to heal every time I have to feed. It's not that bad once its all over. Alright?"

"Your blood can't heal me."

"It just did. I just showed you, didn't I?"

Elena took his arms and pulled them off her. With her eyes straight across the room, she lifted herself up back to her feet.

"That's not what I mean...I'm going to go clean myself up. I'll be right back."

With her wobbling legs, she walked slowly to the doorway. But before she stepped out of the room, Damon called something out to her.

"Hurry back. We're going to do a little shopping later on."

~ After a long shower, Elena slipped back on her dress and again went back downstairs barefoot. She walked to another room where most of the furniture is arranged. Damon, still in his attire he was in the time he woke up, stood in the middle of the room with some kind of rectangular silver device clutched on his hand.

He turned around when she went up to where he is. He took her by the hand and pulled her closer of where he's standing.

"What is that?"

"You'll see. Now, stand still and spread your arms out."

"Why?"

"Just do as I say and you'll find out."

Elena frowned by this. But she did as she was told. She spread her arms out and tried to keep her body still. Damon kept his focus on the device, tapping a few times on the screen with his fingertip. After a few seconds, a sudden green figure – a perfectly squared figure looking almost like a map projected from the screen - floated out from beneath the small screen. Elena gasped in amazement as Damon placed the device down and separated the floating green map.

"Now don't move. You won't feel a thing." He said.

Damon lifted the impossible figure and slipped it from the center over her head and slid it straight down to her ankles. Elena shut her eyes, expecting to feel pain, but just as Damon said, she feels nothing at all. She opened her eyes again. Looking down at herself, the amazing map-like figure scanned the length of her waist to her chest. All there is left that escapes from her lips is awe as actual numbers floated in the air as the scanning proceeded.

Then, the scanning stopped and the green figure lifted its way all the way up to her head until it no longer touched her. Her eyes followed of where it's going. The thin figure spread out into a large square shape in front of her and small images of different outfits and separate clothes appeared into perfect rows of small squares in the screen.

Elena is feeling but disbelief of the remarkable technology in front of her.

Damon scanned through each outfit with just his finger.

"That's..That's so cool. What is this?"

"It's called a S.T. 4,000. All vamps have one of these, the only problem is that this thing cost a fortune, a lot more than this house."

"So? You vamps are already rich..." She mumbled.

She stepped forward and went to his side. She watched in silence as Damon tapped a few of the squares that showed some outfits he approved of for her. In her eyes, she has never seen so many different clothes and has no idea if she truly likes them or not. Damon tapped his last choice on a afternoon outfit – a gray cardigan patterned with black snowflakes, a black short sleeve shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, and brown leather boots with a slight high neck tightened with shoe laces.

"There. That should do," he took Elena's hand and pulled her to where he's standing, "You choose this time. I think for this category the lady should choose, not the man."

"Well, you already chose the rest of the clothes in less than a minute. I don't see why I should pick something for myself this time."

A coy simper curved on his lips. "Trust me, Elena. For this part of our little shopping, you would be embarrassed for me to choose."

He turned his attention back on the screen. He typed some words that Elena could not read and a new set of different clothes appeared, except they're not exactly clothes...

"Uh..um..." Those small words are the only things that escapes her lips.

The dangerous looking simper remain curved on his lips. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pressed his lips on her cheek.

"I told you I shouldn't be the one to choose."

The images are different varieties of bras and undergarments all in different colors and apparently, all in the same size.._her_ _size_.

"I..I never seen so many..What are these things exactly?"

Damon is amused of how little she knows of the world. But he swallowed the building laughter inside him, and decided to teach her of all the unfamiliar things slowly in each step of the way.

"Those things are for all girls to wear when they reach to womanhood. Those one that's attached with two cup-like materials are for the breasts, it holds them to stay in place. As for those triangular cut materials is for you to slip on to protect..to protect any bacteria from entering from – you know where."

Elena lifted her head at him in confusion. "No. I don't think I do. What do you mean 'you know – Oh..Oh right...Silly me. I..I just never wore something that before. But it's definitely a great idea for us girls."

"You mean those dogs didn't even give you these things back in the camp?"

"No. The only things we wore were striped pajamas. Every year as I grew older, my aunt and I stripped some of the clothes from..from corpses before they're carried away and..and eventually they're burned with all the other bodies. That's my way of shopping really."

Damon has learned little of the conditions in the concentration camps the werewolves run. But really, there is no need for any vampire to know anything about those places, they all are aware of how drastic it is. But for Damon, hearing something like this from Elena gave him a sudden curiosity and pity of how in the world she actually survived through such horrible conditions and remain healthy with no illness.

"Well, now you know. Now just choose any of these by random."

"How many do you think I need?"

"Uh..I'm guessing like six pairs or seven."

"Seven it is then. Do I just use my finger just like you did?"

"Yeah."

Elena paid close attention to the screen, tapping only a few of the colors she liked. While her focus remained on the choices on the screen, Damon took this opportunity as a distraction. He went just behind her, his hands now resting on her bare shoulders.

She gasped as his cold body touched so closely against her from behind. The blood in her veins rushed by so quickly as she took slow breaths through her nostrils to calm herself. Damon smoothed his hands on her back, with his fingertips, he smoothed them across the center of her back until he can feel the connecting bridge of the bra.

'Damn. She's wearing one..Huh. Saltzman just had to be that generous to clothe her _completely_.' He thought.

His hands now smoothed all the way down to her pelvis. Since the skirt of the dress is slightly thick, he pressed his fingertips hard against her pelvis until he felt the elastic ends of the underwear she's wearing. To brighten his disappointment, he grabbed both ends of her underwear and snapped both ends.

Elena, at this point, slapped his marble hands away.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"I was just checking if you were wearing anything underneath that lovely dress. Now I got my answer..I thought you said you didn't know what those things were on the screen, but you're wearing them now."

"I forgot I was wearing them. It's not easy to remember every single detail where you're trapped in a house with a vampire.

She turned around to face him. With her arms folded across her chest, she eyed him with a frightful expression.

"For now just..Just don't..."

"Don't what?"

"Don't think about touching me..I..I'm not ready for that."

"You're not ready for that? Well, I'm not sure if you noticed, sweet Bambi, but you weren't ready either when I bit you."

"Well feeding on me doesn't require for me to be nude and throw myself at you."

He took her by the arm and pulled her closer. Before she can push him away, he locked his arms around her waist.

"Who said that can't be arranged?"

"D-Damon..."

He smiled. "I was just kidding, Elena. Can't you take a joke?"

"Yes, I can. But not from you."

"Huh. Are you always this serious?"

"Only if I need to be."

"Well, loosen up a bit," he pushed her a lot closer until her body touched his freezing cold torso, "I want us to have fun, not despise one another."

He kissed her forehead. Elena, on the other hand, feels no desire to receive such feelings from him.

"Fun?..Do you only say that to girls who looks exactly like your wife?"

Damon paused after hearing this. Elena bit her lower lip hard, regretting to say those words.

He dropped his arms slowly from her waist. Elena shakily took two uneasy steps back as his cold hands went to her cheeks. She's expecting full rage from him but instead, he shows only a smile.

"Why won't you go back to your room and try on the clothes I bought you? Alright? One of the reasons why this machine is so expensive is that its able to transport the items in less than a second to the customer's home by a touch of a button. Go on now."

As much as she has no interest of changing into anything, she doesn't want to push him further off the edge by disobeying him. So she quickly nodded and headed straight to the stairway.


	6. A Little Fun For Two

**Hey guys, sorry it's been awhile since I last updated. But I'm back with another chapter, I hope many of you read this and enjoy it. And a quick note before all of you guys continue, **_**Sere'sLight**_** thankfully pointed out that vampires in the TVPD can be warm like humans once they feed on human blood. I'm so sorry, I forgot about that and accidently published that Damon's body temperature is unnaturally cold. I really want to apologize any confusion form any of you, which is why I'm going to kind of fix it in this chapter as best as I can. As for now, please stay tuned…**

**~ H.**

Damon lied back on the couch, his mind flowing with nothing but images of his darling wife. There isn't a single memory Damon has forgotten; from the times she first entered into this house, fully determined to win his heart, and till the finals days of her glorious title as the Savior for all vampires and werewolves. All there is left now in his life – no more of his wife's willingness to achieve his needs and be there for him by his side – is an eternal time period that his solid heart can easily keep his body alive, and a lonesome home that hasn't changed its fine richness for centuries.

Now he has someone to have a reason to appreciate life though, Elena. By the looks of the broken young girl, he sees an opportunity to have his wife back into his life again. However, in Elena's eyes, she sees him as nothing but an enemy, a monster who has led her kind into a living hell that they are still trapped in to this very day. How could such different feelings balance their relationship? No rival can be befriended into an equal. Right this moment, the situation between the slave and the non-stop living bachelor was never brought up by fate or by love in first sight, no, it was by a horribly finished matter through the trade of real human beings.

While Elena is upstairs shivering and hiding herself under the bed sheets, not bothering to try on the clothes like Damon said, Damon listened in silence to the sound of her heartbeat pounding so quickly. He can hear her in his acute hearing of her heavy breathing and her sniffles now starting that signals tears.

A pang of guilt soured his excitement that he just experienced not so long ago. He never meant to scare her but..but how could it be possible of _not_ scaring her, its absurd for a vampire and a human to become compatible. For Katherine it was different, however, she was more willing to become a monster, a monster the man, she claimed to love, live in for years. As for Elena, she's a completely different story, the only thing she is willing to do is to go through this career temporally, and die just as the vampires want.

It's only be a day and Damon is already impatient to get along with her, to gain a relationship that doesn't involve her being so distant to him.

Elena's cries became louder and more concerning as he heard alertly this time of the sound of her fists pounding on her chest.

'...Elena..Don't cry. Just stop it...' He thought with a completely broken heart.

He mentally continued to telepathically tell her to silence her tears in concern. But her cries only continued.

Damon pulled himself up and headed up to her room in vampire speed. He flung the door open by the time he got there, and ran straight to the bed. He crawled on the bed and found a shivering Elena asleep, clearly having a nightmare. She tossed her head couple times to the left and to the right, one of her arms folded close to her side and her other arm pounding its fist on her chest.

Damon placed his hand on her forehead, its burning hot and damp from a droplets of fresh sweat. She gasped for air as if she feels suffocated in the room, and now grabbed her throat with both hands as if she couldn't breathe. Damon closed his eyes and mediated for a short moment until he achieved the task to look into her dream.

_Elena, back in her filthy prisoner's pajamas, is trapped in a small dark room filled with rusty pipes. A great gush of gas filled the room that left no space for air. Elena tried to stand up, but her head hit the ceiling every time she tried. She remained on her knees, both her hands clutching on her sooty black neck. _

_She coughed loudly and crawled to the locked doorway. With all the oxygen now escaping from her lungs, she weakly pounded her fists on the door and called out for someone loudly as she can possibly manage._

"_Get me out of here!..I'll do as you say! I promise I'll obey!..Please..Please don't leave me here again...Not again."_

Damon watched from the far end of the wall, keeping his lips sealed in order for her not to know he's there. Usually, whenever Damon goes into other's dreams, his major rule that he always follows is to never interfere with the dreamer or any of their self-conscience. But this dreamer, his beloved Katherine, is suffering from a drastic event that happened to her only five years ago, yet she still can't seem to forget it. With all the strength he can build, he marched toward her and grabbed her by both shoulders.

"_Let me go! Let me go!" She screamed._

_Once she saw it is Damon who turned her around, she almost fainted. Damon looked at her firmly in the eyes, and started to speak in the most comforting tone he can muster._

"_This is only a dream, Elena. Wake up. Just wake up..Everything you see right now isn't real. You're dreaming. So wake up, and come back to reality. Wake up..Wake up..."_

Elena immediately awoke from her poisoning dream, she quickly sat upright. She lifted her head slightly up to see Damon right in front of her. For some strange reasons, she closed her eyes and embraced her arms around his waist, resting her burning forehead on his cold torso.

Feeling a bit touched by this gesture, a smile curved on Damon's lips. He smoothed her back with one hand and touched the back of her head with the other.

"I told you it was just a dream..." He kissed her head.

Although she is filled with curiosity of how in the world he appeared in her dream, she focused only on the idea of calming herself down in the comforting position she's in. She pulled him closer, her forehead almost reaching to a normal temperature now.

"You feel so..so cool. Are all vampires this cold?"

"Those who are dead, yes. But others that are alive are warm just like you when they feed."

"How come you're not?" She asked with her eyes still closed.

"...It's a secret. You can think of it this way, though, a person can literally feel something by touch through their personality."

She curved a weak smile The dream brought nothing but shivers to her. But right now, she doesn't want to unravel the pains inside her in front of Damon, she must be strong and play the role as the head-strong girl as best as she can. Being all teary up and fragile can bore her master, she can't afford that to happen, not now, not ever.

"That makes sense. Your personality is cold as all the sorry asses back in that auction..Huh. Not that I'm all that grateful that you bought me, I feel a little bit relieved that I ended up with you instead of that Mikaelson...You have no idea how hard it was to hold back when he grabbed me so suddenly..."

"Is that a smile I see? Ah. She can actually smile."

Elena hushed him, with the smile still curved on her lips. "Shh..You're ruining the moment. Just..Just shut up. This is the only way I can bring myself back to reality."

"What a remarkable remedy? It's a shame though, that not all girls like you have the chance to be in the arms of the great Damon Salvatore."

"Great Damon Salvatore? Huh. Don't call yourself by that title so soon, _master_. I already seen you without your shirt on, and I was not entirely blown away..Better luck next time."

Damon gasped, pretending that hearing her say that hurt him. "Now that hurt, Elena. You're encouraging me to try even harder. If you mean what you just said then the next time you see me, I will not be seen without just a t-shirt."

Elena's eyes burst open. She loosened her arms from his waist and lifted her head at him.

"D-Don't yo-you dare..."

"Try me, Twinkle-Toes."

He leaned closer to her face and touched his cold nose with her warm one.

"Oh you think you're so smart aren't you?"

"Of course, I always have my confidence with me. But don't look down at me too much like that with those judgy eyes of yours. You, sweetheart, have full of things to discuss about as well."

"Like what? The fact that I lived like fucking animal for twenty-two years?"

"That's one of them. But the main one that hits me is your personality. I mean, honestly, you confuse me of who you really are. One minute you're Superwoman with the large S written on your chest, just ready to go through your mission. But the next minute you return to being this fragile little kid, wanting to be with her mother."

Elena turned her head to the side, avoiding his gaze at her. "Maybe you should try being human? We all live in flesh and blood, but we all carry different reasons to live..You should always think first before you say thoughts that's always swimming around in that old, frozen brain of yours..For one thing, I try to be brave so I can save any trouble that might harm me or my family. Its not easy looking head-strong sometimes, because its not possible to force yourself to believe that the truth your living in isn't so bad, even though its nothing but a living hell. When I'm sad and breakdown like a little baby, I can't help but grief, its what we humans do, we cry and weep to mourn for our loved ones who are dead or for any reasons that we have to cry..I don't know about your family, Damon, but I have a aunt and a brother who are living because of this job I'm doing for them..well, only for your pleasure, I mean.

"But do you get the point? I can't be myself because I don't know myself. I never did. And I doubt I never will...I'm sorry if I seem too cold to you sometimes, or always attack back at you when you don't hurt me. But its impossible for me to become a person that you want me to be, I'm just a slave, Damon, I will do as you ask, I really will...But that game won't last forever, Damon, the longer you keep me, the faster I will grow older and weaker. You're going to get rid of me sooner or later..That I know."

Damon shook his head. "Stop talking about death."

"But it's the truth."

"It's the truth alright, but it ruins the mood."

"But – "

Damon placed a cool finger on her lips to hush her. "Shhh...Do as I say. Right now, you're my girl and I promise I'll try to watch my words, I apologize that some of the things I say hurt you. I never meant for you to feel like that. Really...For now, forget about the future and look forward to the present now."

Elena took his hand and gently pulled it down.

"How can I? Every time I open my eyes, I always see myself in this room, trapped and alone..well with _you_."

"Ah. So the background is the problem, then. Alright. How about this? I'll take you to a little adventure to brighten your spirits a little. As long as you promise to behave and never leave my sight, I'll take you to somewhere for you to have a little fun."

"Where is that?"

"First promise. Promises comes first."

Elena thought for a moment. She can think of nothing but horrible places she can easily think of on the top of her head. During her long years in the Fortuga Camp, she sometimes overhear the werewolves joke around about the main places vampires usually live in and their weaknesses. Some say they sleep in coffins and if they're staked they turn unnaturally grey and fall into a deadly sleep until someone pull the stake out. If sunlight appears, than some vampires burn and sizzle and turn into ashes, others are protected from dark magic. So far the most ridiculous stories she heard was how garlic and holy water from the church hurt the vampires if they every touched them. The werewolves discussed some of those stories from old vampire films they watched in their time off. But of course, Elena and along with many other open ears from the humans believed it literally.

'Is he going to lock me in a casket or something?..Huh. Is that really suffocating as the dogs say? Oh God, what if..what if he takes me to a dark tower and bite me again in the dark?!' She thought feeling sick to her stomach of thinking back of the horrible sight she saw of Damon after she had her breakfast – she never wants to see the sight of his fangs ever again.

"Well, what's it going to be, beautiful? Yes or no?"

She lifted her head shakily at him, meeting his eyes. "I..I don't know. Just..Just tell me where you're planning to take me."

"Don't you want to get out of this house?"

"I would say yes if this town wasn't populated with vampires. But since there are, my answer has to be no."

"I'm taking you somewhere a little further away from this town. Trust me, this one place I have in mind only allows certain vampires."

"Certain vampires? What do you mean?"

"The high-class vampires."

"I thought all vampire were rich."

"Yes. But being rich isn't exactly the case, the ones who helped the others become rich are titled as high-class. Due to my participation of helping the financial situation in this society, I gained my title to be part of the Witches Council."

"The Witches Council? Now you're just confusing me even more."

"I'll tell you about them later if you agree to go to this little trip with me."

"That's not fair."

"I can't always be fair, my beautiful Elena. Now what's your decision?"

"...Do you promise you won't bite?"

"I promise but by the time we get there, I might have to."

"Damon."

Damon kissed her cheek and cooled it with his cold lips. "Come on, let's go. You'll have a great time. I promise you that."

"But you'll hurt me."

"I have to hurt you whether we're in the house or anywhere else. Remember? Taking blood is the only way for me to live, and also your way of surviving too, I'm still sending my personal checks to your family."

"...Fine..Do I have to dress up though?"

"I thought you'll never ask. I actually bought another outfit for you to wear when you went upstairs. Wear it and come downstairs."

"I don't have to pretty myself up too much, do I?"

"There's no need. I want you to look like yourself, not completely color your face with makeup like all the other girls that'll attend that theater."

"What's a theater?"

"If you dress any faster, than you'll find out quicker than you think."

~ Damon waited for Elena to come downstairs. He dressed in a comfortable, plushy attire – a pair of dark grey jeans; simple leather boots just underneath the legs of his pants, a light silver shirt with a coal darkish trend coat, and a scarf wrapped loosely around his neck; leaving a gap in the center from his bare neck from his smooth wrinkled scarf.

The place that Damon has in mind of usually has a specific dress code required for coming up events, black & white tie. But since there is no event this morning he decided to dress his girl into the main star in the room by the time he gets there.

A sound of footsteps started from the marble stairway. Damon turned around and found Elena finally heading down the stairs, wearing the stunning dress he chose for her. The dress she wears is simple but sensually has the power to capture attention from any man; the purple fabric is designed with smooth silk that shines from the beam of sunlight, the length of the skirt is cut low that exposes her bare legs all the way to her knees, the sleeves are cut into a two-inch straps, and the bodice is cut deeply that exposes her chest and collarbone. As for her shoes, they are once again high heels but surprisingly they're remarkably comfortable and doesn't seem to hurt her feet at all. When she got all the way down to the stairway, Damon went up to her and took both her hands, examining the way she looks.

"You look pretty," he touched the lock of her hair, "Did you curl your hair?"

"No. I think the curls didn't die down..I guess the hairspray my makeup crew used was really strong..I think it was hairspray."

"Half loosely curled. I like it. Well, shall we?"

"Aren't you going to tell me what this theater is?

"Still curious?"

"Obviously, yes."

"I'm still not going to tell you. But I'll give you the first place we gave to go to."

"And where's that?"

"The beach."

* * *

Damon pulled the car over in the empty parking space, and got out of the car with a trembling Elena. He took her by the hand and led her to where the soft warm sand is. He bended down and slipped her shoes for her.

"What..What is that?"

"What is what?

Damon stood back up with both their shoes held tightly with one hand. When he saw how she was trembling, he rested a hand on her cheek and lifted her head for her to look at him.

"What's wrong? Do you feel sick?"

Elena shook her head. "No its not that..It's just..What the hell is that? That..That sooty stuff that doesn't look like dirt at all."

"It's called sand, Elena. There's no harm to it. I swear to you. Come on."

"No..It'll hurt me."

"It won't."

She shook her head, taking a few steps back. "Yes it will."

Damon sighed. "So, the sad Elena is now speaking..Alright then. How about this?"

He lowered his arm down and untied his shoelaces by one pull for each, and removed his shoes off. Elena looked at him confused as he removed his socks as well and stuffed them in the entrances of his shoes. He left them there as he walked toward the sand. Elena looked at his every move with horrified widen eyes. By the time he got to where the sand is, he took three steps on the warm sand and turned around to show her that its alright.

"See. No harm."

Elena still feels uncertain of the strange looking dirt. Damon sighed with an amused smile curved on his lips. A harsh blush of anger burned her cheeks as he chuckled softly.

"Its not funny."

"Yes it is..Are you still not going to come here?"

She shook her head.

"You sure?"

"Positive.._Master_."

"Fine."

He returned back to her side. But instead of convincing her further with his words, he instead decided to choose another way to get her on the sand. He handed the shoes to Elena and she took it, a bit confused why he's giving them to her. Then, without warning, he scooped her in his arms and walked back to the sand.

Elena gasped and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her widen eyes focused on the sight of the horrific ground full of the unusually looking small rocks and sand.

"Damon! Put me down!"

"You sure about that?"

Elena shook her head immediately before she realized what she demanded for. She tightened her arms around his neck, and pressed her cheek on his, her eyes keeping a careful watch on the sight of the sand.

"No. No, please don't..."

Damon chuckled again. "You know, you're adorable when you're scared like this."

"Don't laugh. Its not funny."

"It is to me. You know what, I think I should take you out more often, it'll do you some good."

"Oh God..Whatever you're thinking of, should I be concerned of where you'll take me next?"

"Not yet. Just not yet, beautiful."

"Oh boy..."

* * *

When they reached to the damp area of the sand that's near the salty water, a small hovercraft waited for their arrival. As remarkably amazing the hovercraft looks, Elena seems to be more focused now on the loud waves gushing back and forth on the area of the mushy wet sand.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"To show you a movie."

"I don't know what a movie is."

"I know. That's why I'm taking you to the movie theater."

"Well, where is this movie theater you speak of?"

Damon pointed straight ahead at the hovercraft. "That beauty over there will take us to the movie theater underwater."

Elena turned her head to look at him. "Underwater?! Are you crazy?! We'll drown!"

"We won't. That hovercraft will take us safely, believe me it's perfectly safe."

"You swear you're telling me the truth."

"I swear it. Now brace yourselves, I have to open the hovercraft now so we can begin the ride."

"Is it scary?"

"Not really."

He walked straight to the hovercraft. The vehicle almost resembles as a car but has no wheels and has only room for two people. The sight of the vehicle is handsomely built, its outer shells are painted white with embellished black stripes and an advertised title "Forbes" in the back of the car on a license plate, and the two doors are carved with almost deep gaps and seems to open upward than sideways. Damon, not letting go of Elena, pressed one of his palms on the glass window of one of the doors. The transparent glass window scanned his hand, matching his hand print for a quick second, and once it accepted his handprint the door opened.

Damon carefully placed Elena inside. She scooted to the second seat before Damon came inside too and closed the door behind him. She gave him his shoes and he started to slip them back on his feet. As for Elena, she did the same.

"So? How does this work?"

"Easy. This hovercraft only works by command."

"Command? Really? That's..That's pretty cool."

"It is. But it only listens to the commands by my voice, since I'm the owner of this baby."

Damon tightened the shoelaces and rolled his pants down securely. Before starting the hovercraft, he suddenly leaned closer to Elena. Elena gasped as his body pressed closer to hers; she leaned back deeply on her seat. Damon smiled by how she is misunderstanding his reasons to come near her so closely like this. His eyes turned to the seatbelts and pulled it down, and buckled it on for her securely.

"Safety first."

"Oh..."

He sat back down properly on his side of his seat and secured his seatbelt too. When he saw how Elena looked a bit confused, he took this opportunity to tease her a little to brighten the mood.

"Disappointed, I see? Did you expect something else, my little Dorothy?"

Elena turned her head to the window, letting her hair down to drape her face in order to hide the blush burning her cheeks.

"N-No, I'm not."

That treasure cat smile returned to the little island – a.k.a. Damon's smooth lips – once again.

"Sure you weren't."

Damon pressed his hand on the same window again, and it scanned his handprint once again.

"Drive to Mann's Chinese Theater #2 in haste now, I'm in a hurry."

"_Welcome back, Mr. Salvatore. The distance to the Chinese Theater will take approximately ten to fifteen minutes. Just sit back and relax, our services will take over everything during the ride." _A feminine voice said.

Elena gasped and turned her attention to Damon.

"That's amazing. This thing can talk."

"Oh, and close the windows to a spring wallpaper."

"_Yes, Mr. Salvatore." _The voice replied.

The transparent windows rolled up into a imaginary picture of a spring theme. Elena pressed her hand on the window, falling in amazement and awe of how real the image looks.

"Beautiful." The word softly escaped from her lips.

"Technology can surprise you sometimes."

"That transporting thing already surprised me. This hovercraft thing pushes me to more than surprise..By the way, is this thing moving?"

"Of course, it is. It's just moving so fast you can't tell it's running."

"It can drive faster than your car? Really?..Huh. And I always thought those dogs back home were the most fastest living things in the world. I guess I'm proven wrong."

Just hearing her speak of the werewolves for the first time upsets Damon deeply. It proves that she's thinking of her husband. Damon is aware her marriage to the werewolf was only arranged for convenient reasons. But he doesn't like the idea that another man has the legal right to love his girl as much as he wants. _Legally._

"Don't tell me you're thinking about your dog now?"

"Sort of..I'm more like worried if he's watching over them properly or not, though. He promised me he'll watch over them before I was sent to your house."

"Oh?...Well, I promise you that's not necessary. Your family is under my protection and financial aid. They're perfectly safe right now, I assure you."

"Financially and protected, yes. But not emotionally..Money can't buy love, Damon."

~~ The hovercraft is close to the destination of where they're heading to. Damon and Elena remained awkwardly quiet during the ride, but the interruption of the voice broke their silence.

"_Mr. Salvatore, we have reached to the V.I.P.C. We are close to landing now."_

"Remove the wallpapers, I want my girl here to see the sight of the city I've been dying to take her."

"_Of course, Mr. Salvatore, right away."_

In less than a second, all the windows of the hovercraft returned back to its transparent form. Elena turned her attention to the outside sight through the window. But a large shark suddenly swam by that gave Elena a good scare. She quickly leant back, her hand accidentally grabbing Damon's wrist.

Damon looked down at her hand, and placed his on top of it.

"Wooo. What is this? Now you wanna hold hands?"

Elena turned his head to him, and quickly released his wrist. She fixed her posture and sat back on her seat.

"Don't be silly. Some kind of big thing just swam by."

"A shark? Don't worry, it can't bite you, this hovercraft will protect you..Now look again out the window."

"I don't want to see anymore sharks, thank you very much."

"I didn't clear the windows to show you any sharks, I wanted to show you something else. Go on, look again."

Elena didn't do it right away. But she slowly scooted closer to the window and looked through the clear glass. Outside it is nothing but the sight of the dark underground sea, and in the center is a large earth-like shaped shield covering an entire looking small city – the city is bright with lights, buildings surrounded around the ground, fashionably dressed people walking around the magnificent fine places, flying vehicles flying around in the air, and lastly, the main building that captures the main attention is the Mann's Chinese Theater #2. The sight of such an impossible small little world took her breath away. She never felt so excited before as the hovercraft just drove straight through the sphere, slipping right through with no trouble and without cracking the hard thick glass of the shield.

"What is this place?"

"Here? This is my city."

Elena looked at him in shock. "This belongs to you."

"A quarter of it belongs to me. The rest of the ownership is shared with the Mikaelsons."

"The creepy family you mentioned?"

"Yeah, I know it's a bummer. But hey, the theater is under my ownership."

"That's good, at least..."

~~ The V.I.P.C. is certainly a marvelous sight with the lights and well-built buildings. But the danger is still alarming with the place taken over by vampires. The workers there are humans but their lives are a little different from the treatment 'blood donors' receive like Elena, they are imprisoned for life in the city until they are too old to work and then executed. The only humans who are treated as guests are the 'blood donors' only, commonly young women.

Damon and Elena crossed a nearby street, passing by a few restaurants and couple public fountains. He held her close to him along every step of the way, his arm protectively on her waist. The theater is not that far from where they are, but the two are already bringing attention from some of the vampires, well only on Elena actually.

By the time they got to the Mann's Chinese Theater #2, Damon led her to some of the cemented paths to show her the cemented handprints and signatures from many of Hollywood's top stars. His reasons to show her the boring tour of the cemented paths of people she has no knowledge of is not to kill some time, but a way to pull her away from some of the vampires now following them. Elena looked dully at one printed cement after another.

"Wow. This is..This is interesting. Why are you showing me this?"

He turned his head slightly, leaving a watchful eye on some of the vampires now not wanting to leave.

"It's a way to cool down the sight of some of the vamps behind me."

"There's vampires following us? Where?"

Before she turned around to look where they are, Damon pulled her closer and rested his arm on her shoulders.

"Don't turn around. Alright?"

"Why? I don't understand?"

"Let me put it this way. If you don't want your head chopped off, then do as I say. Okay?"

She slowly nodded. "Okay."

They continued to slowly walk across the cemented path, and Damon casually whispered to her the names of the celebrities and how famous some of them are. By the time they got to Clark Gable, Damon stopped her.

"Now this actor is my favorite."

"Oh. What's his name?"

"Clark Gable. He was known for his title as the King of Hollywood - and by God was he a king. His charms and that dashing mustache he grew gave that charming look that blew all Americans off their feet."

"What was he mostly famous for?"

"Ha! That's easy. _'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn'_."

Elena angrily grabbed his arm and pulled it off her shoulders. Damon took her by the arm and pulled her back.

"Let me go."

"You misunderstand me, Elena. That line was what he was famous for. He auditioned in a movie based on a best-selling novel called 'Gone with the Wind'. His performance as that dashing, scandalous Rhett Butler earned him the highest praise from both the audience and other actors."

Just hearing this short description of the legendary actor suddenly made her laugh. Damon rested his arm back around her shoulders, with his eyes lowered down at her face, he asked her.

"What's so funny?"

"Just that this actor sounds almost like..like you."

"Huh. I guess he does..Probably that's one of the main reasons why I consider him as one of my favorite actors."

"Hmmm..What else do you know about him?"

"Well, other information about Gable is that he was one hell of a womanizer. His good looks and charms fooled almost all his co-stars. He carried quite a scandal with all the women he slept with, even when he was married –which was like five marriages he committed to since his death – but all those information was kept secret thanks to the company he worked for, MGM. Gable was one of the most popular actors in the company and it couldn't afford any situation to stain his reputation so they did a good job to keep his name cleared until he made his final film there."

"What a man? It's a shame he died..But you're a vampire, Damon, and you lived longer than he did. Why didn't you go to him and turn him?"

"You say that as if its easy to turn humans into vampires. Well, its not entirely true. Its no fun babysitting uncontrollable vamps who keeps chopping peoples' heads off. But..But I do admit I was tempted with the idea of giving that man eternal life."

"But what stopped you? I don't think I ever heard of any vampire hesitating to do something."

"Well, this may surprise you, Elena, but vampires have feelings too...I didn't turn him because he was prepared to die, he was ready to reunite with his wife. His third wife, actually. You see, Gable's first two marriages were not exactly the happiest years of his life. But by the time he married Carole Lombard, he actually married to a woman who he was willing to spend the rest of his life with..But she died in a plane crash about a year or two later of their marriage; Gable grieved and turned his comfort with drinking. He pulled himself up, though, after awhile but his next two marriages resulted to him marrying the same blondes who resembled so much like that comical blond Lombard. After knowing that, I just returned back to Mystic Falls, and three days later I heard from the news of his death."

"How sad..."

"All the stars who pressed their hands and feet on these cements carry all sorts of stories, Elena. They all were famous and well-known for their work. But their earlier lives and secrets are not that pretty as it seems besides the more pleasant images of them on film."

"What is a film, Damon?"

"You're about to find out? The movie is going to start any minute now."

"You never answered that question either, what's a movie?"

"You have to see it to know what it is."

"Just tell me." She urged.

"I already told the only thing you can do with a movie. You can only watch it. Now that's enough information to tell you."

"I can watch it? Hmmm..What are we watching?"

"It's a childhood favorite of mine. The Wizard of Oz."

"The Wizard of Oz? What a weird title."

"Wait until you see the movie. Come on, let's go inside."

~ From the very start of the movie, each rows of seats seem to be taken by one vampire after the other. The great fantasy and the characters reflected to those presented from the present impressed Elena deeply; she never left her eyes from the screen, even when Damon focused more on her than the movie.

More vampires entered the large room. By the time the last three seats from the first row were filled, one of the managers of the place escorted some of the ones who just entered outside. But the truth behind all these vampires entering the room is not the pleasure to watch one of MGM's finest films, yet the only reason behind it is to confront the famous doppelganger, Elena. Although Damon is distracted of his delight to see his girl feeling more relaxed and happy, something he can't witness easily from such a broken girl, he is aware of the attention Elena is making.

Fortunately, the law protects any slaves or employees to be touched or injured against their owner's own will. However, there has been a high percentage of murders and abduction of humans. Damon has lost some of his humans before. He never risked in his life to look for them if they're ever missing. But Elena is different to him, if she disappears to the hands of another vampire, or at least gets bitten by one of them, he will forever punish that vampire and prove firmly that the girl belongs to him, and him _only_.

Once the scene ended with Dorothy in bed, her loved ones and the old man surrounded around her, the scene changed to a long list of printed names of the cast members and all the other members who supported the film. Elena leaned back on her seat, letting out a short breath.

Damon squeezed her hand, the same hand he's been holding onto ever since the film started. He leaned a little closer to her, and whispered in her ear.

"What did you think of the film?"

"That was..Huh. That was amazing. But I can't admit that I have some negative comments about this though."

"Ooo. Pray tell?" He playfully asked.

"Well, if I were Dorothy and that pink puffy dressed witch told me I could have gone home if I just tapped those red shoes, and say those five words, I would have killed her. Ha! Or at least tear that ridiculous thing – I think its sort of a hat – on her head."

"I'm glad someone knows the obvious things that little teenager could have done."

"But besides all those little people and flying monkeys and..and an impossible world that I never dreamed of, the witch Witch of the East was quite a character, she's definitely someone nobody in this room will ever forget. Oh wait. Was it the east or the west?..Huh. I forgot."

"East or west. Psh. It doesn't matter what those two bitches were called, in the end of the day, they still look green and ugly like ogres."

Elena smiled. "Do you mind explaining to me what an ogre is?"

Damon placed a hand on her cheek, with his eyes still so focused on her he whispered. "I thought so you might ask that..You'll find out the next time I take you here again. For now, let's get the hell out of here as fast as we can."

Once he gave her a light kiss on her temple, Elena's smile disappeared and the haunting feelings of fear returned to her. As much as Damon hates it when the soft, and fragileness return back to Elena, the area of this place must be taken cautiously if he wants to take his prize back to his home unharmed, and alive.

"Are those vampires still here?"

Damon hushed her. He signaled her with a slight tilt of his head for them to exit the room. She nodded and pulled herself up to stand. Damon casually helped her to get to the exit, but once the vampires caught them leaving, he immediately lifted her up in his arms and ran in vampire speed.

The world flashed like a blur during the quick seconds of Elena being swept off her feet by her master. Once the world settled down in one piece, Elena found herself in a different place. The place is a lot larger and brighter, welcomed with more vampires all dressed finely, some are seated by tables covered in white table clothes, others stood by the bars. Damon lowered Elena down, with his hand holding firmly on one of hers, he led her to the front of the room where a employee stood behind a wooden stand, dressed in a black tuxedo. By the way the man shivered, Elena can clearly guess he is not a vampire, but human.

The man nervously fixed his crooked bowtie to the right center with his trembling fingers. Damon waited for him to speak, but the man continued to distract himself by fiddling around with his already perfected bowtie now loosening.

Damon let out a cough to signal the man to speak. The man shakily lifted his head and finally lowered his arms down.

"G-G-Go-od..I-I...G-G-G..."

The man nervously turned around, smoothing his trembling hands through his gelled hair.

Elena feels nothing but pity for the poor man. Working in a restaurant with vampires is not exactly an easy task if you're considered the meal, more than the worker. But she feels slightly confused of his behavior, for he seemed quite fine, much like a professional trained man, before the second Damon and Elena walked in.

'Why is he so nervous all so suddenly?..There's about thirty vampires in this room. Clearly, if his reasons to be this scared is the fact that he's trapped in a place with all these bloodsuckers, he would've behaved just like this before Damon and I walked in...Could it be that this man is more afraid of Damon? Perhaps..Perhaps Damon isn't just famous for being a womanizer or the famous Romeo everyone was impressed about...' She thought.

Damon turned his head to her, and brushed his lips on the side of her head. "Sorry about this delay. Most of the workers here sometimes behave like this."

She lifted her head to meet his eyes. "Damon, be a little easy on him, he's clearly in too much shock..Please. For me."

"Alright."

He turned his attention back to the nervous waiter. He snapped his fingers to signal the poor man to turn around. Its obvious of the miserable hesitation the man is feeling, but once he saw two vampires dressed also in black tuxedos, he immediately turned around.

"Y-Yes. I-I," he straightened his bowtie again, letting out a cough to bring back his voice again, "...Huh. I..Let me start again. I do apologize, Mr. Salvatore. It is a pleasure to have you back, sir. Did you make a reservation?"

"Boy, I guess I've been gone for too long. It's absurd for me to make a reservation, I own this place, damn it. Now would you mind showing me a table for two..." He looked down at the thin golden name tag pinned on the left breast pocket of the waiter's dinner jacket. "Kurt. I want to have a good time with my beautiful girl here."

The two vampires walked up to them. Kurt nervously swallowed hard, fighting the temptation to tremble. One of them stepped forward to Damon.

"Is there a problem, sir? Because if there is, we will be happy to resolve it for you."

Elena gave a hard squeeze on Damon's hand, signaling him to refuse the offer. Damon casually released his hold on her hand and rested his free arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him, he tilted his head slightly and gave her a seductive kiss on the lips. Elena did not receive such a passionate offer so quickly, she tried to pull back, but Damon pushed the small of her back closer to him.

Once he released her lips, he spoke to the two vampires, not leaving his dark eyes from hers that are now full of fear and shock.

"There's no problem, gentlemen. My girl here is new and ever since she arrived we went off to a bad start. But we've been enjoying ourselves quite nicely since we arrived here. I don't want ruin it by allowing her to see a crying man leave such a beautiful place."

"Are you certain, sir? We can take care of him later, if you like, for the lady's sake."

Damon finally turned his head to look at the vampire. "No. That's not necessary. Besides, you can't blame the poor guy. Why wouldn't he react like this? The man is serving to us, gentlemen, a vampire and his kind trapped into slavery as he is. Now, scram."

"But sir, this place can't tolerate with weaklings like this one."

"Well – whatever the hell your name is – I am the owner of this place, and if you don't have any problem with the way I run things, than I highly suggest you to get you sorry ass back to your positions. Understand?"

The vampire nodded. When he turned around, he gave a nasty snarl to Kurt before walking away with the other vampire.

Damon sighed and gave Elena another kiss, but made it short.

"Now that's settled. Uh, Kurt. How about that table I asked for?"

"Yes, sir. Right this way."

The waiter stepped away from the wooden stand, and walked pass a few tables while Damon and Elena followed him from behind. He led them to a low length stage, the floor covered in a floral velvet carpet, and gestured his hand to a empty table also covered in fine white table cloth. The man nervously pulled the chair out for Elena to sit down first. But Damon shook his head.

"No. I'll do that, Kurt. Just fetch me something to drink."

"What would you like, sir?"

"Scotch. The oldest one you got," he looked down at Elena, "And for the lady, what do you want?"

Elena shook her head. She lowered her eyes down at the floor, allowing her hair to drape her face. A sense of shame washed her into guilt. She has full knowledge of how difficult the humans are living under the powers of both the vampires and werewolves. But besides seeing the suffering back in Fortuga Camp, it pains her even more to see a different life of a human, clearly not a human but a puppet playing along non-stop until its wooden body shreds and the audience no longer clap.

Damon smoothed his hand on her waist, wrinkling the fabric slightly on the waistline.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure..I'm not thirsty or hungry. Let's just sit down."

"Alright..That'll be all, Kurt."

Kurt nodded. Again he ran one of his hands in his gelled hair, a few droplets of sweat now brightening his damp temple from the bright lights of the room. He took careful steps toward the short stairway as if he's just trying to find a way to walk around the couple without stepping on their shadow. Damon and a silent Elena stood there still as Kurt struggled to think of a way to walk pass them. After a few hard thoughts, he forced himself to walk forward. When he successfully took a few steps, his wobbling legs betrayed him that forced him to trip and land straight on the floor.

Elena took Damon's arm and pulled it off her. She quickly rushed over to the man, bending down to help him stand up. The man nervously remained flat on the carpet, breathing heavily. Elena paused to examine his position, checking if he's hurt, but so far he seems to be clearly fine except something caught her eye, two perfect holes scarred on the side of his damp neck.

'Oh God, a vampire drank from him..Oh poor guy, I guess the vamps around here wasn't nice enough to share their blood with him to heal. I wonder how long it's been since that accident occurred thought.' She thought.

But once she laid her warm hands on his shoulder, he flinched and turned himself around like a mad man. His eyes widened once he saw Elena right in front of him. Like a frightened child he backed away in fear. Elena looked at the pitiful man in shock, but in silence once again.

"Pl-Please..Pl-Pl-e-e-ase..." The man gasped in short breaths.

Everyone turned their attention to the dramatic scene. Damon, wanting this attention to be drawn away, went over to the man. He grabbed the man by the arm and pulled him up. Kurt quickly turned around and poured his endless apologies to Damon.

"I'm so sorry, sir. Forgive me..Just give me one more chance, I'll do better, I know I will. Please, sir. I promise I won't be like this again, ever. I swear it. Oh please, sir, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Enough, Kurt. Clearly you're in no condition to work. You're done for the day. Get out."

"Don't get rid of me, sir. Please, I-I don't want to die. I don't want to."

"Relax. You won't be harmed for today. Since I'm in a good mood, I'm going to allow this incident to slide. For now, do as I say and get out. I'm sure another man can take over for the day for you."

Kurt fell on his knees and thanked him with an embarrassing act by kissing his shoes. Damon grabbed him by the arm again, and pulled him up.

"I get you're grateful, Kurt. But kissing my shoes is not necessary. Just go."

"Of course, oh but tha – "

"Ah no, enough with thanking me. Just zip it and get the hell out of here before I change my mind about you not being punished."

Kurt bowed his head low and headed straight across the room, this time he managed to get to the exit without tripping. Damon went to Elena and pulled her back up to her feet. He placed her down on the chair, and pushed it back in slightly. Once he seated himself down, another waiter came with his drink.

"Thanks, James."

"It's a pleasure, sir. And welcome back."

James walked off the stage and returned to other tables that are in need of his service. Damon took his glass and raised it to his lips.

Elena is lost in thought of what just happened. It is clear now that Kurt was not behaving nervously because of Damon after all, instead it was she that he feared. But it doesn't make sense, why in the world would he be afraid of her? She is on the same page as that man. What is it that drove the poor man into such a nervous fright?

"That man was afraid of me...Why was he afraid of me?"

"Elena, not in here. Remember, these people here are not humans, they're vampires. Everyone in this room can hear everything we're saying."

"But Damon, it just doesn't make sense, why was he like that? I don't..."

Then a sudden thought stroke her. Katherine. Could it be because she resembles so much of that woman? Yes, yes, of course, that must be the explanation.

'Could it be possible that Katherine bit that man?..When he saw me, he thought I was her, his worst nightmare risen from the dead.' She thought things through carefully, but before she can make any other inferences, Damon took her hand and brought her back to reality.

"Are you alright?"

She lifted her head, awaken from her deep thoughts. "Yes. Yes, I'm fine."

"You sure you don't want anything, beautiful."

"Yes, I'm sure..But Damon, how long do we have to stay here? This place makes me nervous."

Damon took another sip from his glass and placed it down on the table.

"We're not going to stay for long. Don't worry, these vamps can't hurt you. This place belongs to me, if they ever dare grab or bite you, then I'll have my men kill them once and for all."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, if only if they're under my roof, then it's legal, according to our law."

Elena turned her head to look around the room. She looked at one vampire after the other, all the young females are dressed in a lot finer attire of pearls, diamonds and flashy dresses. The diamonds brings back the image of Jeremy in her head..As for the males, they are dressed more in fine suits all in different color - black, grey, and velvet.

"Do you vampires always dress like this?"

Damon shrugged his shoulders. "Occasionally. But if you have a body that can never seem to shut down, then you get this urge to do the hell you what regardless of others say. So, yeah, they dress up a lot which is why I purposely made the architecture of this place to look as fancy as possible, that way I can have more customers who wants to just go to random fancy places like this to have an excuse to dress up."

Elena turned her head back to Damon. "What do you need money for? You're already rich."

"Money is not easy to make, Elena. Those mines you're familiar of is wiping out a lot of humans, that means many of us are losing money because we're not getting much gold and diamonds as we use to. That's whey we turn to start a partnership with clients and customers. Things have been running like that for many of us for years."

"...Well, you all certainly know how to dress up so well. Everywhere I look everyone is so clean, looking so expensive in those..Huh. I don't consider whatever they're wearing clothes, they're more like angels fallen from the sky."

"Angels? You know what angels are?"

"Of course, the dogs back home weren't willing to change the harsh system. But one of them brought a Reverend, he was a werewolf as well, who preached us couple times and even made a quick prayer to the other corpse dumped in the firing pit to be cremated."

"What happened to him?"

"Some of the people attacked him in one of the cells and killed him. He didn't attack back because of his religious belief of not hurting or killing anyone."

"Did you respect him?"

"God no. I was the one who planned the attack..That's why I was sent to the gas chamber for two whole days."

"So that was the reason why you were locked up in that place? You were punished for killing a dog? By God, what a murder."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment, but thanks...It was a little hard because the dog was real nice to us, but the fact he's still our enemy, and the only one in that camp that was weak, we took our chances and killed him..It felt good to kill one of those dogs. That Reverend didn't do any harm, but he was born a dog and he sided with the other dogs. Because of that he was still a traitor, a hypocrite filled with sweet gospels and moral teachings when he was part of a pack that killed humans."

"Whatever happened to his body?"

"After I got out of the gas chamber, my punishment ended by me eating some kind of funny meat by the time I got to my cell. One or two of the dogs were there to make sure I eat every bite of that horrible meat. The way they were laughing and willing to stay while I was trying to finish gave me the clear message that that meat was no other than the Reverend I was responsible with of his death. I wanted to puke – you have no idea how much I wanted to. But when they threatened to harm my aunt, I forced myself to finish it. From that day forward, I swore to myself I will never eat a dog ever again."

Damon lifted her hand up with both his hands folded on it. He raised her hand to his lips and gave each of her knuckles a kiss.

"You really ate a dog? Huh. You know the more I'm hearing this, the more I'm strangely attracted to you. Is there any other story I should know about?"

"Plenty, _master_. But until you bring me to a place that can force me to say 'ahh that's so awesome' again, I'll reward you with some stories of my life, I mean, the second living hell I lived in for so long."

"Deal."

_**Okay I'm sorry that I didn't get to fix the issue with Damon's vampire freezing temperature thing. I got so carried away I lost track and forgot to add a solution. I promise I will though in the next chapter. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this. Byee.**_


	7. Unexpected Surprises

Elena, both her forearms pressed against the table, leaned her back closer to look closer at Damon's eyes.

"So what's next?"

"I'm going to give you a little tour around here," he took a sip from his glass, "I got a special room for us."

"If that room requires me naked, Damon, that I'm not interested."

A coy smile appeared on his lips. "I assure you that was never in my intention..Of course, I wouldn't mind if you feel like undressing yourself."

"No thank you...Can we go now? This place makes me..sick. I mean, really sick. Every time I turn around a vampire looks at me."

"Alright. Let's go."

He left his glass, still cold, on the table, took Elena's hand and speed walked across the hall toward a red painted door with a sign 'Employees Only' hammered on the center. Damon opened it, and Elena rushed inside, pulling him impatiently by the hand.

The room is decorated very simply, the wall covered in a floral wall paper, a few candle-like lamp stands hammered in a perfect angle on both walls, and a single wooden door ahead in the front center, with a golden doorknob. Elena looked around, eyeing each object carefully.

"What is this place?"

"Sort of my hang out room. I placed that sign on the door so my customers won't get in here. Come on, follow me."

He led her straight to the door, slipped his hand in his pocket to take out the keys. Elena turned her head over her shoulders couple times, in case anyone might be following them. Not a single soul is in sight by them. By the time they reached the door, Damon took a short moment to unlock the door. Once the door opened, the two walked inside. The room is a lot grander and larger, almost like Damon's very own living room. The room is more modernized with a clear message like "home sweet home", a more cozy fashion yet fancy. The carpet is bloody red yet soft; the walls painted by plain beige but embellished with fine portraits of popular artists that Elena has no knowledge of; the furniture is small but enough with just a long French sofa and a armchair right next to it with a living room table placed on the center; and lastly a fireplace on the center with a cabinet above it filled with brandy.

Elena released Damon's hand took small steps as she carefully examined the room. Damon smiled by the looks of her almost acting like a child first entering a mall. As Elena reached to the sofa, in a sneaky manner, Damon silently went toward her and took her in his arms, pressing her warm back against his surprisingly warm torso.

"What do you think? Nice, huh?" He kissed her on the cheek.

"Its..It really is. Almost like your place."

"You mean _our_ place?"

"Right..Ours..."

To avoid the possible awkwardness, he lifted her in his arms, receiving Elena's astonished gasp and uneasy breathing, and landed carefully on the sofa, allowing her to rest on his side with his arms embraced both around her neck and waist. No comfort exists for Elena by this action. But like the promise she made, she must play along, the longer the vampire is fooled, the longer the human survives. She slowly smoothed one of her hands up to his stomach, and stopped once it reached to his chest.

"...Now this is even nicer," she whispered.

"See. All you needed was a different background. Just look how easily you're responding to me."

"I guess I needed that..Huh. I mean, today has been really amazing. I went on a freaking mechanical thing under the ocean and entered a mysterious city. Plus, crossing out about the vampires stalking us, I watched a movie, I scared a human – not exactly pleasant, but it certainly was one hell of a experience, and now I'm in the arms of my master...Hmgh. Okay, the last part is not exactly the main point that boosted my day into amazement."

"Hey."

"I'm just saying. Maybe you should try experimenting a wolf hugging a lamb. That poor innocent white animal is going to die less than three seconds."

He leaned his head closer to hers until his lips pressed against her forehead, their bodies are now lying side by side, looking deeply into each other's eyes.

"That wolf may not control itself. But some wolves can..I can prove it."

With the arm that's wrapped around her waist released itself, his hand smoothed up to her side until his fingertips can feel the zipper of her dress. Elena, literally panicking in the inside, kept her cool as best as she can regardless of her conscious screaming at her to protest.

"You don't have to prove it. The very fact you took me here without biting me, or compelling me shows me already that you can control yourself around me."

"That's not my reason of wanting to prove to you," he pulled down the zipper slowly, "Have you already forgotten your job? I received your trust today. Now I want to receive your body."

Elena gulped, but forced a smile to hide her nervousness. "Damon, come on. It's been a long day. I don't know if you vamps sleep, but I sure can do a nap right now."

"Don't run away from your duty, Elena Gilbert." He whispered that made her spine shiver.

The zipper slid straight down, gently with his hands he slipped the strap of her dress down to her shoulder. Her breath fell shallow as her bare chest expose. Her lips want nothing but to pour out her protest. But the lust and passion in his eyes forces them to silence.

_'This is what I have to do...Just endure it..Endure it. It'll all be over soon.'_ She thought to herself.

Damon's warm lips that were once on her forehead now changed its place down at her shoulder, and explored further to the new area of her bare skin. Elena has no idea how exactly a woman is suppose to respond when a man touches her like this. So far of what she witnessed back at the camps, the werewolves were very brutal and harsh to the human girls; raping them in their cells, grabbing them by their hair and biting their lips or giving them a slimy kiss, and ripping their clothes to shreds. The way Damon is holding her and kissing her is nothing compared to what she knew that men were like.

As dangerous as the monster in her arms may be, she never felt such comfort and warmth from anyone before...But he is a monster, because of that there is a side of fear mixing with her feelings. A fairytale of Beauty and the Beast ends the story with Belle living happily ever after with her human prince. But the reality between Elena and Damon cannot end just like Belle and the Beast, Damon will forever be a monster, and Elena will be his prisoner till her death.

"...You're..You're so warm." She whispered.

He lifted his blue eyes up to hers. "It's because you're here..Every time I'm near you like this, I seem to melt from that ice coldness," his other hand smoothed inside of the open entrance of the open zip line, "...It feels really good, like freedom."

Elena could only gasp as his hand dug deeper to explore the sensitive parts of her body. To calm herself, she opened her mouth to speak, thinking talking could distract her from this very intense..well, indescribable experience.

"..I-I just re-remembered something. Didn't you tell me you were going to tell me about why you're so cold?"

"Well, I am a vampire, Elena. All vampires are cold."

"Just stop for a moment," she quickly caught his arm from her back, "Tell me, remember you promised to tell me."

He tossed his head back annoyed for a brief second, then lifted his head back up and met his eyes with hers again. "Do we have to discuss that right now?"

"Yes."

"Right now isn't the time."

"Come on, Damon. Tell me. I want to know..Then..Then I won't interrupt. I promise."

"Promise? No. Swear it."

_'What am I getting myself into?..Damn the idea of negotiating. It just never ever works on vampires!'_ She silently screamed in her thoughts.

"..I swear. There I said it. Now tell me. Just as you promised."

His eyes rolled to my hand still uselessly grabbing his arm. "Aren't you going to let go?"

"No. Enough with the touching. Honestly being near is enough to give make me jump. Now tell me already."

"Psh you only want to know so you can buy some time to avoid this. But since I promised, I'll tell you anyway...So here it is. I was born that way. There. End of story."

Elena frowned, both annoyance and anger boiling her insides. "Damon..Stop fooling around. I'm sick of it."

"Alright, alright. Well, the reason is –"

"Am I interrupting something here?" A deep cold voice started.

Damon and Elena turned both their heads at the intruder. There right in front of them standing in the center of the sofa is Elijah Mikaelson. Elena immediately pulled out Damon's arm from her dress, and quickly straightened the straps up to her shoulders. Damon, in vampire speed, got up to his feet and gripped the collar shirt of Elijah's dress shirt.

"Get the hell out of this room. Now."

"If you haven't forgotten, Damon, this room is also available for the V.I.P. I'm a member of the V.I.P. And according to your rules, I have every right to be here. Now let me go," he eyed at the nervous Elena with pleasure, "we shouldn't make a scene at your little prize who's lying there trying to dress herself."

"Look away, Mikaelson. She's mine."

Elijah turned his gaze back at Damon. "Come now, Damon. Besides your ownership of your little human, it's the lady's choice to consider a man she truly loves..And now that I see what's happening around here, going on second base after just two days of being with a woman who you just met is not exactly the best idea to earn her trust."

"Oh please, Elijah. If you were me you would have attacked Elena on the first night..Now if you have any further to say, just shut up and walk away."

"Now, relax, I didn't come here for you. I wanted to see how Elena was doing."

"Fuck off, Mikaelson."

Elijah grabbed Damon's wrists and pulled them off the collar of his shirt. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Fine, you asked for it then."

In less than a second, Damon charged toward Elijah and rolled him over across the floor. With great horror, Elena protectively remained on the sofa watching the two aggressive vampires attacking each other with such rage. She's not worried about anyone getting hurt, maybe except for herself, but hey they're vampires. But seeing Damon like this is his worst side that Elena has feared of, the day has so far went well, yet this moment certainly ruined that completely.

The two men attacked one another with the incredible forces of their fists, rolling across the floor, pushing each against the wall, and even strangling one another to death. Elena, unable to deal with any of this, pushed herself nervously off the sofa and approach them, not minding that her dress is not zipped up.

"Stop it! Just stop!"

They didn't listen to her. They still continued on fighting as if she's completely invisible. Vampires may not get hurt that easily. But when it comes fights like this, the only way to end it is either for someone to possibly stop them, or if one of the fighters dies. Damon's death is something her future will not appreciate, if he's gone then her next master, the man now lying on the ground being strangled by a furious Damon, will be the most horrific one out of all that exists in Mystic Falls. Elena took a deep breath, and approached the men closer.

"Damon! Stop it! He's not worth killing! Let him go!"

Damon this time listen to her, his eyes slightly rolled to where she's standing. He can see how nervous and frightened she is. As much as he wants nothing but Elijah's head, he thought sensibily to walk out of that room clean with no blood for Elena's sake. With a last hard squeeze to Elijah's neck, Damon finally let go.

He turned his focus back at Elijah's face. "Listen to me. Elena is under my protection. If you ever dare go near my girl without my permission then I won't be very nice like I am today to let you run along alive and free."

Elijah chuckled, clearly not taking this threat seriously. "I'm not afraid of you, Damon. I can handle myself."

"You may be older, Elijah. But you know what they say, an old man may be wise, but the young always replaces his place. You're that old man, Elijah. For God's sake your body is so ancient, you should be glad with all the women you had they never seen your ass ever so wrinkled and saggy. And me? I'm the young guy who will most certainly replace you one day."

"Don't be so sure about that, Damon. We're vampires, not humans. I'm far more experienced living as this type of creature than you do. Remember that?"

Damon snarled and was ready to grab his neck again. But Elena spoke in on time. "Damon, don't. Please, just get me out of here. I think its best if we return to your house..Come on."

"You heard your girl..Goodbye, Damon."

Elijah roughly pushed Damon off him, and pulled himself up to stand. He straightened his coat and sleeve and casually walked toward Elena. She nervously looked the other way, pulling the straps of her dress properly to her shoulders.

"I hope to see you again, Elena," Elijah took her hand and gave it a light kiss on her knuckles, "Until then, beautiful."

Before Damon's uncontrollable anger erupted, Elijah disappeared in a flash.

~ The two entered the house in complete silence. Elena hasn't spoken a word ever since she got on the hovercraft with Damon. Elijah's unexpected visit really made a horrible effect on her. As for Damon he is too impatient for Elena to continue on with this silent treatment, he wants nothing more but for his girl to speak to him again.

Elena slipped off her shoes, picking them up with both hands, and headed to the stairs. Once she took four stair-steps, Damon, in vampire speed, went toward her and embraced her around his arms from behind.

"I'm sorry about today."

Silence continued in the room. But Elena finally surrendered of her effort to continue to go on with the silent treatment.

"It's okay..I would have attacked him too, if I were you."

A smile curved on Damon's lips. "You would? Really? Wow. I never thought I could imagine you be jealous if you ever see me with another woman."

Elena poked him in the ribs with her elbow. She craned her neck slightly to look at him. "Really? I forgave you like two seconds ago and already you're pissing me off. You know what, just take your apology with both your vampire hands and shove it up your ass, jerk."

Damon chuckled. "Okay, okay, okay I'm the bad guy. I'm sorry," he kissed her on the cheek, "But you know me, Elena, I can't always take things seriously."

"...Hmgh. Point taken."

"So. Does this mean we're cool?"

"I guess..And a little 'no' too."

"No? Why is that?"

"Well let's see. One you took me to a place filled with vampires, which was absolutely suicidal for me, but of course, not for you. Two you broke your promise about me not being naked about this room you were going to take me to back at your restaurant."

"Hey, you weren't naked. Almost half naked."

"You were counting on the full naked stage, though..Come on, Damon, two days is enough for a girl to know a man like you."

"So is that all to your list? Are there more?"

"Well my last one was your big fight with Elijah. But I'm scratching that out, that man's a creep. I don't like him; he just..Ugh. He makes my skin crawl. Sure he's gorgeous, but the way he looks at me really scares the crap out of me. I mean, do all vampires look at humans as if they're food?"

"To those who can't control their thirst, yes. But those who can, not commonly."

"How do you control your thirst?"

"Years and years of practice..But really there isn't exactly a real cure to stop wanting to drink blood, it's just our diet that'll never change. And I never really put much effort controlling it; proving the result of all the men and woman I killed; strippers seems to be an ideal choice in this century though, they're always so willing to give some of their blood. But I started to control it..very very slowly."

"How long did it take you?"

"Hold there, girl. Now if you want to get all warm and snuggly with history and other curious questions you have in mind, it's going to cost you a lot to have them granted as you wish."

"And how much will it cost me, exactly? I mean, what do you want? I got no money, it just all – Woa! No, Damon, my body is off-limits for the day. If you want my blood, fine – warn me first, but fine. But lusty needs has to hold for tomorrow."

"This is what I love about you, you can read me so well."

"Well, I don't need a catalog to know how a vampire operates. Now let me go so I can go my room to rest. I really wasn't kidding about me needing a nap – I'm exhausted."

He pressed his cheek against hers, and sniffed the fragrance of her hair – shampoo and sweet pea. "Come on, doll. I thought you wanted some questions answered."

"I changed my mind. Now let me go. And don't ever call me 'doll' again."

"You're going to regret it."

"Oh I promise, I won't regret it. Ever. Now let me go. Trust me, a tired human is no fun."

"...Oh, fine. But wake up soon."

"You know I have no say in that..See you in at least two or three hours. Bye."

Damon sadly released Elena and she ran up the stairs in case he might capture her in his arms again. He watched her rush up the stairway with a smile, looking a quick glimpse at her behind before she completely disappeared.

* * *

Damon entered his bedroom. He walked straight toward his bed and slipped his coat and scarf off, tossing it on the mattress.

_'Katherine, have I been gone for too long?'_

Damon went toward a tapestry hung beside the fireplace. He lifted it up slightly until a door appeared behind the heavy art piece. He slipped a pair of keys out of his front pocket, and unlocked the mysterious door. Before letting go of the tapestry, he quickly went inside the room. The mysterious room is pitch black and cramped. But Damon knows the way around the room clear as a book. He took careful steps until his hands touched the surface of something hard in front of him. Once he felt something like a wall on his hand, he searched for the door knob, once he felt it he rotated it clockwise and opened it. Only a gap is opened and already a gush of freezing smoke entered the room. He opened the door all the way and entered. Once he stepped inside, he closed the door shut.

It's only been a brief moment and his body is already beginning to freeze. Damon searched around the cramped room until he found a slight glow by the corner. He followed the light until a ice sculpted coffin-like appeared, almost looking like pure glass. Inside that very cold ice is a woman, clearly a dead woman with her eyes closed, it is no other than his wife, Katherine. Damon went down on his knees, his hands touching the glass so gently.

"Katherine..I'm here." He whispered, his mouth breathing out a fog as he spoke.

The dead corpse looks sadly trapped in that bare ice, but the woman looks enchantingly beautiful as she always once was. The very looks of her hair, and the dress she wore the day of her funeral looks almost intact as if she froze in all that ice just yesterday. Damon built this very room secretly by professional construction workers, of course, after the project he killed every one of them to keep the existence of this room to forever be kept as a secret. The ice preserved Katherine's body perfectly well from the years she's been kept here, and the special made lights underneath the icey coffin helps show the inside of the ice. But now that Damon is no longer alone in this house, it's a matter of time when he will tell Elena the reason why his skin is so cold, and his painful reasons of being unable to keep his dearest wife underground.

"Katherine, for once I feel..different. I didn't have the urge to come here for the first time," a weak smile curved his lips, "...I don't know what this girl is doing to me, Katherine. I know she fears me and she hates me, in a way. But..But I want to be with her all the time. Because she's real, and alive."

He looked down at Katherine's face, still looking peacefully asleep. "Katherine, I'm sorry if I'm betraying you..I never thought I could betray you. But no man can actually feel close with a woman underneath ice...I still love you, though, wife. With all my heart. But..But I'm sorry to say that feeling might slip away by the time..by the time I let myself be with her, with Elena. I feel lucky to have her, Katherine. Very lucky. I just wish she can be more willing to accept me like you did. I'm in need a lot of effort to win her heart..But if only its easy for vampires to win a human's heart. If only."

**_So sorry I haven't updated. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter._**


End file.
